A Partridge in a Pear Tree
by Tammy Tamborine
Summary: Christmas is in the air. Everyone knows it, but Raven can't seem to grasp the xmas spirit. Can a certain green teammate help when he starts giving her presents for the twelve days of xmas? And what do the presents mean? BBRae, slight RobStar, slighter CyB
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Christmas was in the air. With every fluffy snowflake falling from the sky, with every jingling bell, and every colorful light twinkling.

Raven took a deep breath of the crisp air. She loved this time of year. The streets looked like they had been frosted with sweet icing, and the buzz of excitement was everywhere. The Charities, unbridled joy from children pulling their toboggans around, and couples young and old, sharing this special time of year together.

Yes, Christmas was in the air… so why didn't she feel it? She could sense other's feelings of joy and excitement, but she couldn't seem to grasp it for herself this year. She had become painfully aware of the commercialism attaching itself to this time of year, and that had been dampening her holiday spirit.

Raven gave a small, but genuine smile to a man dressed as Santa, ringing his bells for a charity. She stopped and placed a couple dollars in the pail and continued walking. There were only twelve days until Christmas, and she had put off buying presents for her friends for as long as she could. She had just bought the last gift and was walking back to the tower slowly, hoping that she could catch some of the Christmas spirit.

"Hey! Get back here!" a voice broke her thoughts, and she turned toward the Santa she had just passed. Dashing in her direction was a poorly dressed man, carrying the charity bucket. The charity Santa was running behind him, but was much too slow to catch the thief. Narrowing her eyes, she concentrated on the power flowing through her body.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she cried, dropping the bags of gifts she was carrying and raising her arms. The man was pulled into the air in a large encasement of black energy. The charity Santa slowed down, panting.

"T-thank you," the man breathed, trying to catch his breath. "That man tried to steal the money."

Raven had been able to figure that out herself, but didn't respond with the sarcastic comments she usually would have. Instead she bit her tongue and lowered the thief. She freed him of his black prison, but kept a tentacle of power wrapped around his waist. She pulled the bucket out of his hands and handed it to the Santa.

The Santa took the bucket, thanking her again, before walking back to his post.

Raven turned back to the thief, who was looking shame-faced at the ground. He looked so guilty, that Raven felt a twinge of sympathy, but she ignored it. Putting on a blank face she asked the man,

"Why did you steal the money?"

The man looked up from his shoes. Raven noticed offhandedly that there was a large hole on the toe of his left shoe.

"I didn't want to," the man whimpered. "I know stealing ain't right, but I got a family waiting for me, and I ain't got no job! My daughter, she's four, an' I just wanted to get her a present this year, is all."

Raven listened to the man's story and her face softened a little.

"There are better ways," she told him. "If you don't have enough money to get your daughter a present, there are more than enough charities around the city who are willing to help."

"Yeah, I know," the man replied, hanging his head. "I just don't want my little girl to think her daddy can't do nothin'."

"Asking for help isn't nothing. And I'm sure your daughter wouldn't mind," Raven told him, noticing the glint of tears in his eyes.

The man remained silent, looking at the hole in his shoe until Raven spoke.

"Take me to your family," she ordered. The man looked at her questioningly, but complied.

She followed the man through the busy streets until they reached an alley. Looking into the dim space between buildings, Raven's heart dropped as she saw families huddled together for warmth. The man led her to the far end of the alley, where a woman was holding onto a young girl with blonde hair.

The man stopped before his family could see him. He turned to Raven, unsure of what to say.

"They're beautiful," she told him.

"Yeah, they sure are," the man agreed, watching his laugh as she watched her breath swirl in the cold air. She seemed unaware of the harsh conditions they were living in.

Looking closely, Raven could see that the girl's jacket was thin and her arms were turning red where there were holes in the material.

Raven looked down at her own clothing. She was wearing pants, a sweater and a warm jacket in lieu of her usual uniform. Placing her bags on the snow covered ground, she unzipped her puffy blue jacket. She shivered at the feeling of the cold air blowing against her tight black sweater. She ignored her discomfort and leaned down pulling a doll she had bought for Starfire out of one of her shopping bags. She handed the jacket and doll to the man. He looked at her questioningly.

"You wanted to get your daughter a Christmas present. It's a little early, but I'm sure she'll like her gift," explained the empath. The man listened to her explanation in amazement, before smiling widely. The smile made her see how he might be slightly handsome under different conditions.

"Oh thank you!" the man cried, clutching at the gifts. "Thank you so much!"

The man turned away from her and ran towards his family.

"Harry, where have you been? Where did you get that?" asked his wife as he dropped to his knees in front of them.

"I've been with a Christmas angel," he told his wife, kissing her on the cheek. He turned to his daughter and handed her the warm jacket and the doll.

"Thank you, Daddy! Oh! Mommy, Daddy, I love you so much!" cried the girl, throwing herself into her father's open arms.

"Harry, what's all this about a Christmas angel?" asked his wife. Her voice was reprimanding, but her joy sparkled in her eyes and a smile graced her features.

"A girl, she gave the coat and the doll to me. She's right over there," explained Harry, pointing in Raven's direction. When they looked though, the spot she had been standing in was empty.

"She was just there," said Harry, looking at the spot in bewilderment. "I know she was there."

"It's a Christmas miracle," whispered his wife, placing a hand on his shoulder.

In the shadows, Raven smiled. She was good at blending into the dark, and knew they couldn't see her still watching them.

They had called her a Christmas angel, she remembered, touched at their words. She leaned against the wall as she watched the happy family. Even living poor in the streets, they were able to feel the Christmas joy.

"That was a nice thing you did," said a voice at her shoulder. She was surprised, but recognized the voice and didn't need to look over.

"Where did you come from?" she asked, eyes still fixed on the girl happily jumping around in her new jacket, and spinning around with her doll.

"I saw you following this man down here, I decided to see what you were doing," her companion explained. She could almost hear the smile that was undoubtedly pasted on his goofy face.

"Well, I'm glad to know that instead of having a stocking this year, I have a stalk_er_."

The changeling laughed and placed a warm arm around her body. She tensed slightly and turned to glare at him.

"You've been shivering since you gave away your jacket. You're going to freeze if you don't warm up soon," he told her, explaining his actions in a joking manner. He waited to see what she would say. She wouldn't kill him so close to Christmas, would she?

"Come on, let's go get some hot chocolate," she said, shrugging off his arm and picking up her shopping bags.

"Sure!" her exclaimed. Taking one last look at the family, they began to walk out of the alley.

Suddenly Raven stopped. There was one more family in the ally, and an old man. Beast Boy smiled as Raven reached into her shopping bags and pulled out a red and green scarf. She handed the scarf to the old man who smiled and thanked her profusely. Then she turned to the other family. Young twins boys, about six years old, were kicking a dented can back and forth. They were wearing warmer jackets than the little girl wore. Raven handed one boy a stuffed animal of a green gorilla and handed the other a car, which was meant for display, but would work for playing with.

Her bags empty, Raven and Beast Boy left the alley, leaving behind very happy people.

They walked down the busy sidewalk until they reached a small café. The café was brightly lit and decorated for the holidays.

They sat down at a small two-person table and waited for the waitress to come take their order. As they waited, Raven looked at the people sitting in the small restaurant. There was a group of friends in a booth, laughing merrily. A mother sat at another booth, wiping sticky whipped cream off of one of her two young children, as the other chattered loudly about what they were getting all their relatives. There were two other two-person tables occupied. An elderly couple, talking to each other quietly sat at one. Two young women sat at the other, chatting happily.

Raven found her eyes traveling to the elderly couple. She wondered idly, what it would be like to be with someone for so long. They looked so in love, staring into each other's eyes as they spoke softly to one another. The wrinkles around the corners of their mouths when they smiled spoke of hard times overcome together. Raven thought it would be nice to be in love with someone and spend your entire life with him or her. She found herself wishing that someday she could be like the old couple, sitting with the love of her long life.

"Hello, may take your order?" asked the sweet-voiced waitress, walking over to Raven and Beast Boy's table.

"Two hot chocolates please," ordered Raven, shaking her head free of her girly thoughts.

The woman nodded and walked off to get their order. She came back carrying two large mugs of hot chocolate. A thick layer of whipped cream and chocolate shavings covered the warm liquid.

The two friends sipped their hot chocolate, talking about what they had bought for their other three friends.

"I wasn't sure if I should get presents for the Titans East," said Raven.

"Yeah, neither was I, so I'm just going to give them each a small basket of Christmas cookies," confided Beast Boy, taking a sip of his hot chocolate.

"That's a good idea," admitted Raven. She looked up from her hot chocolate and fought the urge to smile. Beast Boy had a foam mustache and a blotch of whipped cream on his nose.

Wiping away the foam mustache, but not seeming to notice the cream on his nose, Beast Boy nodded.

"Yeah, I thought so too. If you want we can make them a really big basket for all of them to share and write all of our names on the card," he suggested. "Then no one has to worry about what to get the Titans East."

"That would be nice," replied Raven. "Wow, you sure are using you brain… for once."

Beast Boy smiled at the praise and took the last swig of his hot chocolate. Raven finished her own drink and placed it on the table. They sat talking for a while before deciding to leave. They called the waitress over and she gave them the bill before walking off with the dirty cups.

Raven reached for her wallet, but Beast Boy got his out first and placed enough money on the table for both of their drinks and a nice tip for the waitress. Raven had given done some really good deeds today, and in Beast Boy's opinion, it was the least her could do to pay for the hot chocolate.

They walked towards the door, and Raven was following Beast Boy out, when she heard the old woman at the other table comment to her husband,

"Such a cute young couple, do you remember when we were that young?"

Raven turned away, blushing lightly, and walked out of the door. Beast Boy didn't appear to have heard, and Raven's blush receded.

Still, as they walked down the street, Raven's thoughts lingered on the old woman's words. She had thought Raven and Beast Boy were a couple, and apparently they reminded the woman of her and her husband when they were young. Raven thought back to when she had been watching the old couple, wishing that someday she could have the same thing as they did. If she had understood that woman correctly, they elderly couple had known each other since they were in their late teens, possibly younger, and they were still in love. Was it possible that Raven could find her soul mate at the age of seventeen and be together forever? An image shot through her head. She saw herself as an elderly woman, smiling lovingly at Beast Boy, equally aged, as they sat in a café like the one they had just left.

Another blush crept across her face and Raven was glad for the frosty air that turned everyone's cheeks rosy.

"Oh! I almost forgot that you're not wearing a coat!" exclaimed Beast Boy, noticing her shiver slightly. "Here, take mine."

She shook her head as he stopped and began unzipping his jacket.

"No, you'll get cold," she declined his offer. "I'll be fine."

"Raven just take my jacket, and stop being so stubborn."

"You're being just as stubborn as I am," she retorted.

"Well, fine then. We can compromise. We'll share my jacket. That way we'll both be warm," he replied, pulling his arm out of one sleeve.

Raven scowled when she couldn't find a flaw in his compromise, but walked into the jacket. Beast Boy blushed; he hadn't expected her to go along with it. He thought she would just take the jacket instead. Still, he wasn't complaining.

Beast Boy wrapped the jacket around the two of them like a blanket and they continued walking towards the tower.

Raven was surprised at how comfortable she felt walking down the street, wrapped up with Beast Boy. It felt natural somehow.

Eventually they reached the water and looked out at the tower sitting on a small island. Beast Boy turned into a bird and began flying towards the tower, leaving his jacket with Raven.

She was glad that he had left it as she lifted into the air and flew after him. The cold air that surrounded her as she flew over the water wasn't as bad while she wore his jacket, still warm from their combined body heat.

As she landed on the island, she smiled to herself. As she walked into the tower, she felt just a bit of the Christmas spirit.

* * *

Okay, so this is the beginning of my Christmas story. I'm really excited about it! I've got most of it written already. There will be twelve chapters, and I'll update every day. It'll all be posted by the 23rd, I promise. Reviews are always enjoyed and appreciated.

Tammy Tamborine


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Raven walked into her room, closing the door behind her. She had just left the common room, where Beast Boy was excitedly explaining their plan for getting the Titans East a big basket of baked goods for Christmas. Raven had decided that she had been social enough for one day and retreated to her room.

She looked around her room, a habit she had acquired since Beast Boy had snuck into her room and been sucked into her meditation mirror. Everything was in its place, and nothing seemed to be missing. As Raven's eyes fell on her bed though, she stopped. She walked over to her bed and picked up a messily wrapped box, with a note attached.

She opened the plain white envelope and read the note.

_Raven,_

_First, I just want to say that I know I shouldn't have gone into your room, but I didn't touch anything. _

_Okay, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just spit it out… for the next twelve days leading up to Christmas I'm going to leave you presents! They probably won't all cost a lot… it adds up, after all, but it's the thought that counts, right?_

_Today is the first day of Christmas. Since I couldn't get you a partridge in a pear tree, I figured this would work._

_-Your secret admirer._

_PS. I would really appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about this. It's kind of embarrassing, even if no one knows who I am. _

Raven allowed a small smile to cross her face. She had a secret admirer. Of course, she knew who it was, so 'secret' was a term being used loosely. It was Beast Boy.

He had changed his writing a bit, but not much, and he had written in pencil. Being a lefty, his hand had lightly smudged the letters. How Raven knew Beast Boy wrote with his left hand was beyond even her.

Gingerly picking up the small box, she ripped the wrapping paper and crumpled it in her hand. Under the wrapping paper was a plain white box that fit nicely into the palm of her hand. She opened the white box in her hand and smiled at the gift inside. A small ornament sat in it. It was a pine cone painted green to look like a Christmas tree, decorated with fake snow and using beads for Christmas balls. She could still see some strings of glue from the hot glue gun he had used, but she decided that it was still nice.

What did it mean? Did he like her? Was it just a friendly gesture? Raven wasn't sure what she thought of it, but she decided that she couldn't let him give her anymore gifts. If she let him, he might begin to get the wrong idea, and that would be like leading him on.

Placing the ornament on her bedside table, she lay down on her bed and closed her eyes.

-

Raven woke up the next morning with thoughts of Christmas presents. More specifically, the Christmas presents she still had to get her friends.

Raven thought back to the other day. She had given away all her friends' presents. The porcelain doll she had bought for Starfire, the cashmere scarf she chosen for Robin, the model car she had bought Cyborg, and the ridiculously expensive stuffed gorilla she had chosen for Beast Boy.

She didn't regret giving them to the people living in the alley, but now she had to redo all her Christmas shopping. Oh well, better to do it now than a couple days before Christmas, right?

Stretching, Raven rolled out of bed and walked over to her closet. As she padded across her room, she noticed how cold her feet and nose were. That was her least favorite part of winter: the cold.

She opened the door of her closet and shuffled through the clothing. She didn't feel comfortable in normal clothes, but with the snow it was a bit too cold to wear her usual leotard and cloak. After a while of staring at her clothes and hoping an outfit would jump out for her, she chose a black turtle neck and a pair of dark blue jeans. She pulled out a pair of thick wool socks and put them on immediately, warming her cold feet.

After changing and brushing her teeth, Raven made her way to the kitchen. Only Robin and Cyborg were up. Robin was reading the newspaper while sipping coffee and Cyborg was looking through the sports sectionand chomping on a large blueberry muffin.

Raven made herself a steaming cup of tea and sat down at the table. She glanced at Robin and smirked. He was also wearing normal clothing because of the cold, but his mask remained firmly in its place. Raven knew that the Boy Wonder never took his mask off. She had doubts if he even took it off when he showered.

Raven opened the book she had carried from her room. It was a nice thick book with small print and long words. Opening to her bookmark, Raven began to read.

Starfire came in shortly after, and sat down next to Robin with a bowl of mustard-covered cereal. An hour later, Beast Boy stumbled in, yawning.

"Morning," he greeted, lazily opening the fridge. The others returned his greeting as he pulled out a bowl of fruit salad. "So, what are you doing today?" he asked no one in particular.

"I need to do my shopping," Raven replied, flipping a page in her book. Beast Boy smiled knowingly, and she pretended not to notice.

"I too have the shopping to do," added Starfire. "Would you like to go to the mall of shopping with me, Raven?"

"I prefer to go window shopping downtown," Raven replied, flipping another page. Starfire frowned slightly; she prefered going to the mall, with its warm store and bright displays.

"I'll go with you Star," said Robin, putting his newspaper down to look at the alien girl, who smiled brightly.

"Y'all are so unprepared. I did all my shopping ages ago," bragged Cyborg from the couch, where he had gone to sit after he finished reading the sports. Raven rolled her eyes.

"I'll go shopping with you Raven," offered Beast Boy, excited already.

Raven didn't say anything; instead she just nodded her head to show she had heard. She didn't really care if he went with her or not.

Everyone finished their breakfast and headed to the door, although Cyborg stayed where he was. Raven pulled on a spare jacket and warm boots, and waited for Beast Boy to finish getting his own outdoor clothing on. Once he was completely bundled up they walked outside.

Starfire and Robin had already left on Robin's R-cycle. Raven and Beast Boy walked to the edge of the water. Effortlessly, Raven lifted into the air. She turned around and watched as Beast Boy jumped into the air and shifted into a bird. Once he was flying next to her, she turned and they flew towards the bright city.

They landed downtown in front of a toy store. The display window was brightly decorated with a display of a model train traveling in a circle around a large pile of toys. Beast Boy pressed his face against the glass, watching the train pass through a fake snow covered tunnel.

As Beast Boy watched the train display, Raven watched Beast Boy. He seemed unfazed by the quickly fogging glass as he watched the shiny red engine. A little boy soon joined Beast Boy, gazing at the train. Beast Boy's grin grew larger when a small puff of steam escaped the engine. Raven felt a giggle rise as she watched the seventeen year old boy gaze at the same toy with the same excited expression as the seven year old next to him. She suppressed the giggle, but allowed a Mona Lisa smile to grace her features.

After a while, Beast Boy seemed to remember that he was supposed to be shopping with Raven, and he pried himself away from the window.

"Why don't we go in here? I'm sure there are stuffed animals or something that Starfire would like," he suggested, pointedly not mentioning how he had been watching the toy train in the display only five seconds ago.

Raven nodded her agreement and they walked into the store. It was slightly crowded with customers and excited children showing their parents what they wanted from Santa that year. A few employees made their way through the crowd, marked by nametags and bright red Santa hats.

They wove their way through the many people until they reached the rows of shelves with dolls and stuffed animals. Dozens of glass eyes looked at them as they walked down the aisles. After a while of browsing, Raven stopped and picked up a doll. It was perfect. With vibrant red hair and bright green eyes, the doll looked like Starfire with pale skin. The doll's dress was a light purple satin gown with an orange sash and orange detailing around the sleeves and hem.

"I haven't found anything for Starfire," commented Beast Boy, walking over. "Hey! That doll looks just like Star!" he exclaimed, pointing at the doll in Raven's hands.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to get it for Robin," replied Raven, looking at the price tag. Beast Boy laughed.

"Awesome! Didn't know you had it in you, Raven," giggled Beast Boy as they walked over to the till. The crowd in the store had dwindled down a bit, and there wasn't a very long line, so they were able to quickly pay for the doll and leave.

After they left the toy store, they continued their trek down the snowy streets of downtown Jump City. As they waked, Raven's mind drifted.

A group of young teenagers, probably just passed their pre-teens, was walking down the street in front of them. They were laughing loudly and carrying numerous bags of gifts for their many friends and their families. Raven wondered what they were thinking. Did they know that Christmas was getting too materialistic? Did they even care? Did they know any better? Raven wondered vaguely why shewould beso consious about it all, when she was just over three years older than them. Surely if she realized it, they did too.

The group of teens turnedand disappeared into a small store, causing Raven to turn her thoughts away from them.

"Why don't we go in here?" suggested Beast Boy,catching her attention by placing a hand on her arm. She shook his hand off and looked at the store he was pointing at. It was alarge department store. She nodded and they walked throughthe spinning doors into the gaudily decorated store.

While Raven found the store much to decorated to be anything but cluttered and try-hard, she had to admit it was a good place to look for gifts. With so many different sections of items, it would be easy enough to find all the gifts they needed for their very different friends.

Beast Boy found a car waxing kit for Cyborg, and a pair of boxing gloves (Robin really wasn't a boxer, but he had always wanted to learn), but couldn't find anything for Starfire. Raven found a pretty silk bathrobe and slippers for Starfire, but wasn't sure what to get Cyborg.

"I can't find anything," groaned Beast Boy as they walked out of the department store. "And my arms are going to fall off carrying all this stuff."

"You only have one bag," pointed out Raven.

"Yeah, but this car waxing kit is heavier than it looks," insisted Beast Boy. Raven rolled her eyes, knowing that the kit didn't weigh more than two ounces for easy travel use,and looked at her watch.

"It's almost noon. Do you want to stop for some lunch?"

"Yeah, sure. I know a good place," agreed Beast Boy. Suddenly Raven was jerked to the side as Beast Boy grabbed her elbow and pulled her into a small restaurant. Raven glared at him, but he ignored it.

They ate quickly and shopped for a couple more hours in a comfortable silence, only speaking when they needed to, or when Beast Boy felt the need to tell Raven one of his annoying jokes.

After a while of window shopping, it had started to snow pretty hard, and they couldn't find any more presents, so they decided to give up for the day.

At the tower, Raven went straight to her room. She closed her door and smirked triumphantly. There was no way Beast Boy could have left a gift for her today. He had been with her the whole time and even he wouldn't risk leaving a gift while she was in her room. She turned around from closing her door, and her triumphant smirk changed to a look of annoyance. There on the bed, was another gift.

She walked over and sat down on her bed. The present was wrapped in the same wrapping paper, green with cartoon reindeer on it, and was as badly wrapped as the other one. She opened the new note and read it.

_Raven,_

_I was watching the weather forecast and I decided that you might want these._

_-Your secret admirer_

The note was short, but to the point. Raven put the small slip of paper down and picked up the new gift. This one was wrapped, but not around a box. It was more like a bundle. She tore off the wrapping paper, and found a dark purple, knitted scarf and a pair of matching mittens. Examining the scarf, she could see that the loops of yarn on one end were slightly loose, like the knitter was just getting the hang of it. Further down the scarf though, they were tighter and the knitter had obviously gotten use to knitting- or crocheting, she wasn't sure which.

Raven sighed. When had he gotten it into her room? She thought back and realized that he had probably stopped in her room in the morning, while she was in the kitchen. She would really need to get a better lock.

She looked out her window and watched as the snow fell down heavily. There was already at least four inches covering the ground. He was right, she probably would need them if the snow kept falling. She hated how right he was, but smiled lightly as she folded the mittens and scarf and placed the bundle at the end of her bed. He was being pretty thoughtful.

Raven sat back in her bed and frowned. She still wasn't sure what he meant by all the gifts. She had spent the day with him and he hadn't acted any differently than usual. So, they were probablyjust friendly gestures. She furrowed her brow. If that was true, it brought up the question of why. Why give her presents for all twelve days of Christmas? He obviously wasn't giving anyone else twelve gifts, or he wouldn't have asked her not to tell anyone else in the first letter. So, then were the gifts his way of showing her that he cared for her? That brought her back to the fact that he hadn't treated her any differently.

Raven let her head fall back onto her pillow. She realized, begrudgingly, that she wouldn't be able to find a reason tonight. Her thoughts just kept running in circles. She could always figure it out tomorrow. Without bothering to change, Raven crawled under her covers and went to sleep.

* * *

Here it is, the second chapter. This is where the story really starts. The next chapters will be full of wintery/x-masy activities and Raven's twelve gifts. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who reviewed, I was absolutely flabbergasted at how many reviews I got for the one chapter. I hope this chapter was acceptable, and I'll see you again tomorrow. 

Tammy Tamborine


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Raven groggily opened her eyes and pulled her covers up higher. She wiggled her nose and, noticing that it was significantly colder than the rest of her boy, buried it in her pillow. Her room was colder than it had been the night before. Since she hadn't changed out of her sweater and jeans though, she was much warmer then she would have been in normal pajamas.

After warming up under the covers for a few minutes, she stood up with the covers still wrapped around her body, and walked over to her window. She rubbed some frost off the glass and looked at the ground below. There was at least a foot of snow covering the ground.

She went over to her closet, ignoring the cold, and pulled out a clean sweater and warm pants and changed quickly. Once she had finished getting ready, she walked down the hall and into the kitchen. The hydraulic doors leading into the main room opened with a hiss and she surveyed the room. To her surprise, everyone else was already up.

"The furnace went on last night, but it wasn't warm enough. We all woke up from the cold," Robin explained. She wasn't used to being the last one up, and she realized, with some embarrassment, that her surprise must have been evident. She nodded and fixed herself a cup of warm tea.

As Raven made her way over to the table with her steaming cup of tea, she caughtthe mouth-watering scent of pancakes Cyborg had generously made. Raven sat down next to Starfire and placed a couple of the warm flapjacks on her plate.

"Friends, what shall we do today?" Starfire asked, drenching her plate of pancakes in mustard.

"I propose we have a snowball fight!" Beast Boy exclaimed, holding his fork up in the air. Raven rolled her eyes. A snowball fight? How juvenile.

"That sounds pretty fun," Robin admitted.

"Hey, nothing better to do," agreed Cyborg, finishing his large pile of pancakes.

"That would be most enjoyable!" Starfire added, clasping her hands against her chest.

Raven looked down at her food, but she could feel everyone's eyes on her, waiting for her answer.

"No," she told them.

"Ah, come on Rae! It won't be any fun without you!" Beast Boy pleaded.

"On the contrary, it won't be any fun _with_ me," Raven replied, biting a piece of pancake off her fork. She couldn't say she wasn't at least slightly tempted with the offer, but she had given up frolicking in the snow like a toddler a long time ago.

"Please? You don't have to join in! You could just watch from the sidelines," Beast Boy offered.

"As tempting as it is to sit outside in the cold and not do anything, no." Raven replied.

"Come on, Raven! Give me one good reason why you shouldn't," Beast Boy challenged, leaning across the table so his face was inches from Raven's. She scowled at his smug expression.

"Because it's immature and childish," she replied calmly, taking a bite of her pancakes.

"What are you saying? That all of us are childish for wanting to go out and have some fun?"

"No, I'm saying _you_ are childish for suggesting it," she snapped, standing up abruptly so they were almost nose to nose. Beast Boy narrowed his eyes and growled in frustration. Raven stared back, unblinking, until BeastBoy sighed angrilyand backed away.

"Fine," he replied, picking up his plate and stomping over to the sink. The other Titans watched him walk away. Raven knew they felt awkward, but they didn't want to say anything, in case they got in the middle of one of Beast Boy and Raven's arguments.

As Raven watched him walk away, a strange gnawing feeling began in the pit of her stomach. She reccognized it;the feelinghad become a more frequent occurrence lately. Guilt. It angered her how hard it was to ignoresuch a pointless emotionwhen they fought lately. It really made no sense why she couldn't yell at him and have a clear conscience anymore.

"Fine," she grumbled, sitting down and poking at her pancakes angrily. "I'll go outside. But if I'm not having fun after the first round, I'm coming back inside and reading for the rest of the day."

Beast Boy turned around and smiled. Raven rolled her eyes lightly asa sighof relief escaped the other Titans.

After breakfast was eaten and dishes put away, everyone went down to the landing. Everyone bundled themselves up in warm jackets, boots, hats and gloves.

Raven pulled on her new mittens and scarf, reveling in the warmth of the wool winter accessories. She looked up and scanned the landing from under her eyelashes. She was glad to see that she had managed to put them on without Beast Boy noticing. Her cover was blown, however, when Starfire commented loudly on how nice her new outdoor clothing was. Beast Boy looked over from putting on his boots and smiled proudly, but only for a second, before opening the large metal doors and leading everyone outside.

Raven was the last one out. She trudged through the snow, enjoying the crunching sound the snow made as she followed her friends' footsteps. Looking down as she walked, she was able to identify each of her friends by looking at the tracks left.

Cyborg's were the easiest, as each of his feet was almost twice the size of the others. Starfire's were easy to identify as well. She floated slightly as she walked, so some of her prints had only pressed down the first inch of snow, if any. Robin's footprints were an average size, walking in a straight line, quite close to Starfire's. Beast Boy's were about the same size as Robin's, but she knew they were his by way they turned out awkwardly and how they changed into large dog paw prints right before they turned the corner of the tower.

She turned the corner to the back of the tower, where her friends would be waiting for her so they could start the snowball fight. She looked up from the ground and was greeted by a shock of snow hitting her straight in the face. Raven lifted her hands to her face, wiped away the snow and glowered at the laughing changeling. She bent down and rolled a handful of snow into a ball and threw it back at him. It landed squarely on his forehead, knocking his goofy toque off his head. (AN: No offense to toques, of course. I'm a proud Canadian, after all)

Soon everyone joined in, throwing snowballs at anyone. It was every man, alien, half-demon, robot and uh… beast boy, for themselves.

Raven would never admit it to anyone, but as she threw the clumps of snow at her friends, she actually enjoyed herself. She even caught herself smiling a few times, before quickly replacing it with her usual expressionless expression. After a while, everyone ceased fire, panting heavily, but smiling widely, even Raven.

Raven collapsed to the ground, next to her friends who had all done the same, ignoring the cold as it bit at her cheeks and froze her posterior. She looked around at her friends as they caught their breaths. Cyborg and Beast Boy were arguing happily about whom had won the snowball fight. Starfire had fallen onto her back and made an angel in the snow. Robin smiled and lay back to do the same.

"Let's make snowmen!" exclaimed Beast Boy, standing up energetically. Raven shrugged. She couldn't find any good reason _not_ to. The other Titans agreed enthusiastically and stood up as well.

Everyone set about making his or her own snowman. After an hour or so, everyone had almost finished their snowman. Raven stepped back from her snow person and looked at everyone else's handiwork.

They were now recognizable as snowy versions of the Titans themselves. At least, for the most part. Looking over at Beast Boy's, Raven had to bite back a flood of sarcastic comments.

His snowy counterpart was barely recognizable from a pile of snow. Raven smiled lightly and walked over.

"Need some help?" she asked, failing to hide the amusement in her voice.

"No, I think I'm good," replied Beast Boy, stooping down to work on a 'shoe'. Raven watched with a raised eyebrow as he stood up and looked at his creation. "Okay, I might need a little help," he admitted, laughing after scrutinizing the snowman for a minute.

Raven reached for one of the arms. She carefully molded the snow until it was a close replica to Beast Boy's arm. She did the same to the other arm as Beast Boy carefully shaped the legs. They continued to work in silence until they couldn't find anything else to fix. They stood back and looked it over. It was as good, if not better than, its fellow snowmen.

All the Titans stood back and looked at the snowy super heroes. Laughing, everyone walked back into the tower. Inside, Raven rubbed at her fingers and sock-covered toes. Her digits were nearly frozen, and she knew the other Titans must be having the same problem, but everyone was happy and barely noticed any discomfort they might have.

They all walked into the kitchen and sat down. Robin quickly made five cups of hot apple cider and brought them over to the table.

Raven accepted the cup gratefully. Her hands prickled as the hot cup unthawed her fingers quickly, but she didn't mind.

Raven drank her cider quietly, listening as her friends joked happily. One joke that came up fairly often was how they should have made snow villains for the 'Snow Titans' to fight. On some level they all must have realized that the joke wasn't that funny, but no one could be knocked down from their emotional high.

By the time they had finished laughing and eating a fairly large dinner of nuked pizza (they had completely forgotten to have lunch), it was late, and everyone was tired. They walked to their rooms in sleepy, good spirits.

When Raven walked into her room, she wasn't surprised to find a clumsily wrapped gift sitting on her bed. She walked over and picked up the note.

_Raven,_

_I'm sorry about our fight today, I shouldn't have pushed you to do something you didn't want to do. _

_I just wanted to say that I'm having fun spending time with you this winter. I suppose you probably know by now who I am. Please, don't say anything or act differently around me. I don't want you to be uncomfortable around me. _

_-Your secret admirer (Beast Boy)_

Raven's eyebrows shot up in amusement. Perhaps he wasn't as dumb as he looked. He knew that she knew who he was. Raven reread the note and frowned slightly. What did he mean by not wanting her to be uncomfortable around him? Did that mean he actually _was_ doing this because he liked her? Or did he just say it as a formality, to tell her without telling her that what he was doing was just a friendly gesture and he didn't want her to get scared and think he was in love with her or something.

Dropping the note on her bed, Raven sighed. Every time she thought about his notes, her thoughts ran wild and she could never get a straight answer, and she wasn't used to it. She had never found it hard to think, or analyze or anything else of that nature, so how come suddenly she was having so much trouble? She was especially having trouble analyzing the strange feeling she got around Beast Boy lately. It had come with the first gift, or perhaps a little before that, and she didn't recognize it. She got butterflies in her stomach, like she got when she was nervous, except more enjoyable.

Shaking off her thoughts, Raven changed into her pajamas and lay down in her bed. It was a nice feeling, and she decided that it didn't need to be analyzed too much. Not yet…

* * *

The third chapter is up! I know she didn't open her gift yet, but she will in the next chapter. Just a quick question, who here has seen the Nutcracker?

Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed, I always love hearing your thoughts.

Tammy Tamborine


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Peering through her cave of blanket, Raven wearily rubbed the sleep from her eyes. As she moved in her bed, she heard a crumpling sound and reached down to pick up a small parcel. It was the gift she had gotten from Beast Boy the night before. She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts of the note, that she had completely forgotten to open the gift.

Gingerly, she opened the small gift. Once the wrapping paper was off, Raven opened the small flat box underneath. She gasped when she saw five slips of paper inside the box. They were tickets for the Jump City Grand Theater! She looked at the bright white tickets and read the clear black print that proudly boasted the name of the ballet, The Nutcracker. Raven smiled and pulled the tickets out to get a better look at them. She looked at the date printed on the side of the tickets:December 17. The tickets were for the show that night and they had some of the best seats in the house!

She jumped out of bed and quickly changed out of her pajamas. She carefully placed the tickets in their box and placed it on her bedside table, next to the ornament Beast Boy had gotten her as her first gift.

She walked excitedly to the kitchen and was slightly disappointed to see that she was the first one up. Walking over to the open area beside the couch,Raven sat down in mid-air and slowly chanted her mantra. As she meditated, time slipped past and her friends all woke up and entered the main room.

Raven stood up and looked around the room. Robin was placing a large plate of waffles in the middle of the table, surrounded by five empty ones. The rest of the Titans, Raven included, walked eagerly over to the table.

Once everyone was seated and had their own smaller stacks of waffles, Raven cleared her throat. Everyone looked at her, and she made her announcement.

"We're going to go see The Nutcrackertonight," she informed them.

"That actually sounds pretty fun," Cyborg commented through a mouthful of chewed waffles. "It's been a couple years since I went to The Nutcracker last."

"This 'Nutcracker', I believe I have heard of it. It is a seasonal play, yes?" asked Starfire, her eyes sparkling.

"It's a Christmas ballet," confirmed Robin. "I've seen it before. It was really good."

Beast Boy just smiled and looked down at his breakfast. Raven wondered for a second if Beast Boy was actually looking forward to it. He had gotten her the ticket- there were five, so surely he intended for them to all go together- but, did he really want to go, or was he just being kind?

For the rest of the day, everyone went about doing his or her own thing until the evening. Cyborg played video games with Beast Boy and worked on his car. Robin somehow managed to spend the whole day just talking to Starfire about the play. When Beast Boy wasn't playing video games, he stayed in his room with the door closed.

Raven traced the crystal designes of frost on her window as she willed time to pass. She had read for most of the day, but she had finished her latest book and was feeling too excited about the show to read. Of course, anyone looking at the girl right now wuoldn't think she was excited, as she traced the delicate lines of ice on her windows with a neuteral expression on her face.

"Raven, dinner's ready," Cyborg called through the door. Raven looked away from her window and let a ghost of a smile cross her face. In less than three hours they would be going to see the show.

That night they ate a quick dinner.Once they had both finished eating,Starfire dragged Raven to her room. Inside her room, she closed the door and turned to Raven, smiling excitedly.

"Friend Raven, I understand that this ballet is semi-formal attire."

"Yeah… and?" asked Raven.

"And you must assist me in the finding of an outfit!" Starfire squealed, opening her closet with a flourish.

Raven groaned, but walked over to the closet anyway.

"Well, do you have any choices yet?" asked Raven, shuffling through the hangers of clothing. She was slightly surprised at the amount of normal clothing Starfire had, concidering she never wore anything but her uniform except in the winter. Then again, all those trips to the mall can't have been to just while away the time.

"Yes, I have narrowed it down to ten shirts and eight skirts, and four pairs of shoes."

Raven sighed; this would take a while.

-

After Raven had finished helping Starfire choose an outfit, the alien insisted on doing the same for Raven.

Now, as she stood in front of her full-length mirror, Raven had to admit that she didn't look half-bad. She had been afraid that Starfire would pick out something atrociously bright and/or gaudy, but the Tameranian had kept Raven in mind while picking out the clothes, and Raven actually liked the outfit she had been forced to wear.

She would have been perfectly happy just wearing black dress pants and a sweater, but Starfire wasn't content with that. She had chosen a dark purple skirt made of silk for the empath to wear. For a top, Starfire had chosen Raven a dark gray blouse with delicate swirls of purple and blue. Raven had never been sure about wearing gray, because of her already gray skin, but the shirt was darker and looked quite nice against her pale skin.

The two girls made their way to the main room, where the guys were ready and waiting. Robin's jaw almost dropped when he saw Starfire.

"Y-you look… very nice… Star," Robin stammered, blushing as he looked over Starfire's outfit; a long, flowing pink skirt, matched with a white blouse that nicely showed off her figure. Strappy white heels showed off her calves in a way her usual past-the-knee boots she wore never could.

Starfire giggled, getting the reaction she had been hoping for. Raven couldn't imagine that the black suit he wore was very comfortable right now, judging by the shade ofcrimson his face was turning as hegazed at Starfire. Cyborg and Beast Boy sniggered at their leader's red face, drawing Raven's attention.

Cyborg had put on a grey pant and jacket suit that was large enough to fit over his sturdy frame. Raven had a sneaking suspicion that it had been specially made, as not even the largest man in Jump City needed a suit large enough to cover all of Cyborg's machinery, without being too large in the waist.

Beast Boy, Raven admitted to herself, actually looked quite nice. He was wearing a pair of khakis and a dark blue button down shirt under a chocolate brown blazer.

Beast Boy noticed her gaze and walked over to her.

"You look nice," he told her sincerely. Raven felt a blush cross her cheeks and grunted in reply.

Beast Boy smiled and didn't say anything else.

Everyone was ready so they walked out to the T-car and got in. Cyborg, of course, was driving. Raven sat up front in the passenger seat, and Beast Boy, Starfire and Robin sat in the back.

At the theater they parked in a nearby parking lot (Cyborg didn't trust his 'baby' with the young valet) and they walked into the theater. Inside, Raven smiled. She loved the Jump City Grand Theater. With its dark wooden carvings around the ceiling and dark red carpets on marble-style tiles, it had an old fashioned flair that reminded everyone that the building was older than they were.

She handed each Titan a ticket and walked over to their box. She knew they would want to get snacks.

She was only sitting alone in the box for a couple minutes before she heard Beast Boy's voice calling for her. She walked over to the door where the ticket taker was standing in front of Beast Boy. The green man smiled at her.

"Hey, Raven. Could you do me a favor and grab my ticket for me?" Beast Boy asked, smiling at her hopefully. His arms were full of snacks and his neck was angled awkwardly so he could look at her pleadingly.

"Why couldn't he get it for you?" asked Raven, pointing her thumb at the ticket taker who suddenly looked very uncomfortable. So did Beast Boy, who laughed nervously.

"The ticket is kind of in my back pocket," hemumbled, blushing. Raven raised an eyebrow. After a while, she walked over and quickly pulled the ticket out of his pocket. She blushed slightly when her hand brushed against his posterior, but she quickly shook the immature thought out of her head. She flashed the usher the ticket and he let them in, laughing lightly.

Beast Boy followed Raven in, vaguely wondering why she hadn't just used her powers.

-

During the first intermission, Raven stood up, stretching lightly. She looked over at her friends, who were doing the same. Starfire was smiling brightly and Robin was happy because she was. Cyborg had seen the ballet many times before, but he seemed content as he picked up various empty boxes (he had staggered in a couple minutes before the show started, carrying more snacks than even Beast Boy had. Luckily, he had been carrying his ticket between his fingers so he didn't need help getting in).

Beast Boy's eyes were wide and he smiled at her.

"This is so awesome!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, it is," Raven agreed. "But I never really thought you'd enjoy a ballet."

"Yeah, me neither," Beast Boy admitted, laughing. "But this is actually really cool!"

Raven nodded and sat down once more.

"Don't you want any snacks?" Beast Boy asked. "There's plenty of time to go get some."

"No, I'm fine." Raven replied. Beast Boy shrugged and walked out to get more snacks.

He returned a few minutes later with even more snacks in his arms, and his ticket held firmly in his teeth to prevent to the same incident from happening twice.

He sat down next to Raven and put spread out his snacks on his lap and on the ground at his feet. Raven looked at the many snacks and looked at him questioningly. He laughed, but didn't reply,since the lights were dimming again.

A couple minutes into the second act, Beast Boy offered her some chocolate covered almonds, which she silently accepted. For the rest of the show, the two shared Beast Boy's many snacks.

-

The Titans walked into the Tower and turned on the lights. Raven followed her friends in. As she took her jacket oof though, her mind was far away in the Kingdom of Sweets.

It was late, so after saying good night, most of the Titans went to their rooms. Trailing behind, Raven stopped in the kitchen first and picked up her book, which had been left on the kitchen table earlier that day.

She went back to her room and noticed almost immediately the gift sitting on her bed. She picked it up and read the note.

_Raven,_

_I'm glad you liked the tickets. I figured you would. I got the tickets a while ago from some raffle I donated money to. Anyway, I hope you like your fourth gift. _

_-Your 'secret' admirer_

Raven smiled and put the note down. She picked up the gift. It was placed in a gift bag this time. Raven dug through the thin tissue paper that hid the gift, and pulled the present out. It was a small nutcracker figurine. Raven smiled and placed it on her nightstand, next to the tree ornament.

She quickly changed into her pajamas and crawled under her covers. She fell asleep quickly.

In her dreams she danced in a magical world, with a nutcracker that changed into a green prince when she kissed him.

* * *

I couldn't help myself. I love the music in the Nutcracker, and when the Nutcracker changes into a prince. It always puts me in the Christmas spirit, so I had to put it in the story somewhere! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. You have no idea how happy they make me!

Tammy Tamborine


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Raven woke up the next day in a good mood. Sweet dreams floated around in her head, though she couldn't quite remember them.

She quickly grabbed fresh clothes and scurried into the bathroom for a shower. She turned on the water, testing the temperature with her hand, and stepped in. As she washed herself, she hummed songs from the Nutcracker. She took her time getting ready and was the last one to come into the main room.

"Friend Raven, have you got my Christmas present yet?" Starfire asked as she walked into the room. Raven raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

"Glorious! Then you must accompany me in the shopping! I have already purchased your gift as well, but I still have more to buy," the alien explained, floating over the Raven.

Raven thought over the gifts she had bought so far. She still needed to find gifts for Cyborg and Beast Boy. She nodded and sat down at the table.

"Beast Boy, do you want to go with me?" asked Robin. Beast Boy looked up from his spot on the couch and nodded.

"Sure," he replied, looking back at the TV screen to make sure Cyborg didn't pass him on the racing game they were playing.

"I'll give y'all a ride," Cyborg offered, easily passing Beast Boy.

Everyone ate their breakfast and got ready to leave. Once everyone had finished zipping their jackets and putting shoes on their feet, Cyborg gave them a ride to Jump City's biggest mall.

They thanked Cyborg for the ride and the four Titans went into the mall. Raven looked around the busy mall. One of the reasons Raven preferred to shop downtown was because it was outside. Walking through mobs of people was slightly more enjoyable when you had fresh air, instead of the stuffy, trapped oxygen in the mall.

"Let's meet in the food court at twelve thirty," Robin suggested, looking at his watch. It was just past eleven. Everyone nodded, and they parted ways. Beast Boy and Robin walked towards the escalators and Starfire and Raven began walking through the main level of the mall.

The two girls searched store after store, searching for gifts. Starfire only had Raven's gift bought already, so she looked through the stores for presents for each of their male friends. She found gifts for Beast Boy and Cyborg within ten minutes of their shopping endeavor, and spent the rest of the time searching for Robin. Raven had less luck, being unable to find gifts for either Beast Boy or Cyborg.

"I do not know what I should get Robin," Starfire confided as they looked through a bookstore. Raven shrugged.

"I'm sure he'll love whatever you get him," she told Star truthfully, walking down the aisles of books.

"What did you get him?" she asked curiously.

"I, uh… can't remember," Raven replied. Starfire looked at her strangely; perhaps noticing the mischievous glint Raven knew was shining in her eyes, but just shook her head and smiled.

Raven picked up a book. She read the back and smiled. It was about a robot who wanted to be a man, but found out he could be just as important and loved as a robot. Raven pictured Cyborg in her head and decided that it would be a perfect gift for him. She paid for the book, then followed Starfire through the nearly empty bookstore. After a while, Starfire picked up a book.

"The Dummy's Guide to Seeing What Is Right In Front Of Your Eyes," she read out loud. Raven snorted. "Do you think Robin will 'take the hint'?" Starfire asked. She had told Raven of her feelings for Robin a long time ago.

Raven smirked, "Yeah, you should get it."

Starfire giggled and paid for the book. The two girls left the store smiling. Raven glanced down at her watch.

"It's almost twelve-thirty," she informed Starfire. "We should probably go to the food court."

The two girls went up the two stories to the food court. They stood in front of a large fountain and searched the crowd of hungry shoppers.

"Raven! Star!"

The girls turned to see Beast Boy and Robin sitting at a table, waving at them. They waved back to show they saw them and quickly bought their lunches. Walking over to the table, they sat down across from the guys.

Beast Boy was happily munching on a veggie sub and sipping soda, while Robin was expertly eating sushi with wooden chopsticks.

"How much of the shopping have you completed?" asked Starfire, munching on mustard drenched fries.

"We're almost done," Robin replied. Next to him, Beast Boy nodded.

"I am done my shopping," Starfire held up her bags. She had only bought Raven's gift the other day, but had found the others quickly. "But Raven still must complete hers."

A familiar ringing sounded and, instinctively, everyone reached for their communicators. Robin reached his first. He turned it on and was greeted by Cyborg's face.

"Trouble?" he asked in his 'leader' voice.

"Yeah, there's big trouble. You never told me when you wanted to be picked up," Cyborg joked.

"Cyborg, the communicators are supposed to be used for crime-fighting purposes," Robin said sternly.

"Don't get your spandex in a knot, even criminals celebrate the season," Cyborg smirked. "Besides, how else was I supposed to get a hold of you?"

Robin nodded and smiled.

"I guess you're right," he relented. Raven was amazed at how many people changed for the better around Christmas; Robin wasn't even being strict about hero work. "How long do you think you're going to need?" he asked the other Titans.

"I only need to find one more gift," Raven replied.

"About an hour or two," Beast Boy estimated, thinking over the gifts that he and Robin still had to get.

Robin looked down at his watch.

"Does two o'clock sound good to everyone?" he asked. They all nodded.

"Good. I'll meet y'all at Santa's workshop," Cyborg told them. The communicator went blank and they finished their lunches before splitting up to shop once more.

Starfire and Raven searched several stores, but were unsuccessful in finding Beast Boy's present. They looked in every electronics store, comic shop, and clothing store in the mall, but nothing was right.

Raven saw plenty of things she would have bought him a few days ago, but none of them seemed right. She realized now that none of them were… personal enough. They were all based on a basic knowledge of Beast Boy, things that any fan could have chosen for him. She wanted the gift to show how well she knew him… in a friendly way, of course.

Raven wasn't sure why it was so important to her, but she couldn't shake the feeling, and so wasn't able to find his present before two o'clock.

"Friend Raven, it is almost the hour of two, and you have still not found the gift you seek," said Starfire, looking at a clock mounted in one of the clothing stores. "Perhaps we should inform out friends that we will need more time?"

"It's fine Star, let's go. I'll get the last present some other time," Raven replied, walking out into the mall.

The girls walked quickly until they reached Santa's workshop; the meeting place.

Santa's workshop was the traditional Santa display in Jump City. A small area in the middle of the mall had been cleared of stalls and a large, elaborate display had been created. The square area was blocked off with velvet ropes and fake snow covered the ground inside. Fake Christmas trees and gifts were set up around the edges of Santa's workshop, along with wooden benches that had cardboard elves working on toys set in front, to make it look like… well, Santa's workshop.

At the far end of the workshop, a large throne-like chair had been set up with a jolly looking Santa sitting on it. 'Elves' stood across from the old man and took pictures of everyone who wanted to take a picture with Santa. A long line of children stood in front of the display, waiting for a chance to sit on Santa's lap and tell him how good they had been and what they wanted for Christmas. Near the back of the line, stood Cyborg.

Starfire and Raven spotted him easily, as he stood tall above the young children, and most of the parents. They walked up to the half-metal man.

"Why are you standing in line?" asked Raven, as another child joined the queue.

"I wanna talk to Santa," Cyborg replied, smiling.

"Awesome! Let's say hi to Santa!" a familiar voice cried over the noise from the shoppers. Raven rolled her eyes and turned to see Beast Boy walking beside Robin and begging their leader for a chance to sit on Santa's lap.

She waved them over and Beast Boy smiled widely. He and Cyborg hi-fived and stood next to each other in the line eagerly. Raven rolled her eyes as Starfire began growing excited as well. Though Raven insisted she found it immature for a bunch of teenagers to be standing in line, she moved up with her friends every time the line grew shorter.

After a few minutes, they were finally at the front of the line. Beast Boy, Cyborg and Starfire rushed forward and Robin followed close behind, smiling. Raven followed reluctantly and stood to the side.

Beast Boy jumped onto the arm of Santa's chair and excitedly began telling the jolly old elf what he wanted for Christmas. Raven strained to hear what he wanted, but the boy was speaking at such a fast rate that even Santa seemed a bit confused.

"Ho, ho, ho," the dressed-up man laughed, "I'll do my best to get you what you want, but your going to have to be a good boy."

Beast Boy nodded happily.

Starfire wasn't far behind him and was allowed a place on Santa's lap, seeing as she was fairly light and couldn't stop floating in happiness anyway. Cyborg was leaning on the back of the chair and Robin sat on the other chair arm, next to Starfire.

"Come on Rae, Santa's got another knee. You can sit there and we'll all get our picture taken!" Beast Boy exclaimed, waving the empath over. Raven looked at him blankly. After a while she walked over and stood on Beast Boy's right, on the outside fringes of the picture.

The elf that was taking the picture walked over to all of them and gave them all a cheesy smile.

"Welcome to Santa's workshop," he greeted them, even though they had already been there for a minute or two talking to Santa while the elf helper had been busy with the previous customers. He handed them each a candy cane and continued to recite his greeting. "Five dollars for each 8x5 picture. Each sheet of pictures takes five minutes to develop." By now the elf had made his way back to the camera and was adjusting it so as to fit all of them in the picture.

"Is everyone ready?" he asked.

"Just a second," replied Beast Boy. He turned and whispered something in Santa's ear and the man chuckled and nodded. "Okay, we're ready. Raven, last chance. Santa's got one extra knee for you to sit on."

"I'm fine here," she replied, letting her hands fall down to her sides.

"Suit yourself," the green boy said, flinging up his hands in mock resignation. Still, Raven was slightly worried by the mischievous glint in Beast Boy's eyes and the knowing smile on Santa's lips.

"Okay, one…" counted the elf, and everyone prepared for the picture. "Two…" Beast Boy began to lift his arm closest to Raven. "Three!" Just as the photographer said it, Beast Boy swiftly grabbed Raven's arm, pulling her over his own lap and onto Santa's left knee.

Everyone laughed, except for Raven who was glaring playfully at Beast Boy, and the picture caught that moment.

Laughing, the elf began to print the picture. All the Titans rushed over to watch the picture slowly appear, except for Raven who was still trying to regain her balance and get off the old man's lap. As Raven struggled, the man gave a shout of his deep laughter. Raven was slightly surprised when his belly shook like a bowl full of jelly. She looked up and realized that close up his beard was quite obviously real. She shook away a few strange thoughts that quickly filled her head and sat up. She began walking away and was about three steps away when she heard him say,

"Young Raven, you look just like Arella," the man chuckled fondly. Raven immediately froze in her spot.

"What did you say?" she asked suspiciously. How did he know about Arella?

"I said you look just like Arella," he repeated. "When she was your age, of course."

"How do you know my mother?" Raven asked, turning around so quickly that they were almost nose to nose. She gave the old man a glare that would frighten anyone, but he just laughed.

"Ho, ho, ho! Raven, you really should let down your tough act during Christmas," the mall Santa mocked gently.

"I'm going to repeat this once more, how do you know my mother?" Raven hissed through her teeth. The man was making her nervous; he seemed to know her so well.

"I know every child in the world. After all, I'm Santa Clause," the man replied, eyes twinkling. Raven rolled her eyes, turned and walked a few steps away.

"Spare me," she replied sardonically. "I know there's no such thing as Santa."

"Isn't there?" the man asked, smiling knowingly. Raven, slightly flustered, replied,

"Of course not! He's just a tale told to children to make them behave all year."

The man smiled.

"Well, whatever the case may be, you should really let yourself have some fun this Christmas," the man told her.

"I have been," Raven responded truthfully.

"I know," the man replied. "I just want you to remember that if you ever feel like acting on your feelings for Beast Boy."

Raven whirled around, unsure of what she wanted to say and trying to ignore the blush that burned on her face. When she turned however, she found that, to her surprise, the Santa was gone. In his place was a different man with a clearly fake beard, who appeared to be slightly thinner.

Confusion crossed Raven's features as she looked at the Santa before her. She shook her head and turned around to her friends, who were laughing and calling to her. She tried to forget what had just happened, but when she turned around again, she felt a delicious shiver of magic slip past her. She smiled. She hadn't believed in Santa since she was a young child, but suddenly… the idea didn't seem so impossible.

* * *

I just felt like adding a bit of Christmas magic. So, was it acceptable? I hope so.

Tammy Taborine


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Raven woke up the next morning feeling quite peaceful. Yesterday's adventure with Santa at the mall seemed like a vivid dream, but she had no doubt that it had really happened.

She stretched and carefully picked up an item on her bedside table. It was her latest gift from Beast Boy. She looked at the picture frame fondly. It was painted gold, with bright red and green holly painted around the corners. It was clearly hand-made, and Raven was surprised at the green boy's artistic talent. She had always assumed Beast Boy would be a messy artist, judging by his writing, his snowmen and his overall being, but it seemed she was wrong.

She had found it on her bed when she had gone into her room that evening after reading in the living room for a couple hours after they returned from the mall.

She looked at the picture that had been placed in it; the picture they had taken the other day at the mall. Cyborg was laughing at Raven as he leaned against the back of Santa's chair. Starfire's back was mostly turned away from Raven and perpendicular to the camera, but her head had turned just in time to see Raven get pulled down, and a large smile had spread across her face. Robin was leaning on Starfire's side of the chair and had snuck his arms around the alien, presumably using the excuse of fitting into the picture. Raven was sitting on Santa's left knee, with her own legs on top of Beast Boy's. Beast Boy was sitting on the left arm of Santa's chair and smiling fondly at Raven as she glared at him.

She had been slightly embarrassed at being pulled onto Santa's lap last minute, but she was now quite attached to the picture. She had had fun at Santa's workshop, although she would never admit it to her friends.

Sighing, Raven placed the picture frame back on her nightstand. She knew she would need to tell Beast Boy to back off soon. She wasn't sure if he liked her _that_ way, but she didn't want to lead him on if he did. It was wrong. She had put it off until now because, wait…

Raven knit her brows, thinking hard. Why had she wait this long? He had given her five gifts already; she had plenty of time to tell him she wasn't interested. As Raven sat in her bed, leaning against the back board, a thought crossed her mind. What if she didn't _want_ to tell him to back off? What if she liked him?

As quickly as the thought came, it was dismissed.

"As if," Raven muttered, crawling out of bed. Blocking her mind from all thoughts of Beast Boy, she grabbed the things she needed for a shower and quickly scurried to the bathroom.

She finished quickly and went to the main room. As usual it was empty, although if she listened carefully she could hear the stirring of her fellow Titans.

Making a cup of tea, she sat down in her usual meditation spot. She meditated for a while, concentrating only on the flow of her three words, but found that she couldn't do it for as long as usual. There hadn't been any trouble for a while now, as if all the real criminals were busy with the festivities of the season. Since there had been any trouble, and not much stress, her emotions, and therefore her powers, were under relatively good control.

After a while, she gave up trying to meditate and just sat curled up on the couch, clutching her warm tea and watched the light snowfall. After a while, her friends joined her, sitting in silence on the couch. Even Beast Boy was quiet, although, truthfully he was half-asleep.

Raven's lips curled up slightly. She enjoyed just being with her friends. They were all comfortable enough with each other that they could all just sit together and not say a word. Beast Boy was usually the first one to break the silence, as it wasn't in his nature to be quiet for long. No one minded though; they were all comfortable in their silences, but they still enjoyed talking to each other more.

"So, who's making breakfast?" Beast Boy asked.

"I will," offered Cyborg, standing up from the couch.

"No way! You'll make meat!" Beast Boy protested.

"Well, then why don't you make it?" Cyborg retorted.

"Because every time I make breakfast you complain about it," Beast Boy replied, crossing his arms.

"Only because you make that nasty tofu of yours," Cyborg replied, making a face at the 't' word.

As the boys continued to fight playfully, Robin made his way silently to the kitchen. He was willing to make Beast Boy's tofu eggs and bacon, even if he refused to eat it.

While Robin cooked, Raven read and Starfire watched as Beast Boy and Cyborg- who had apparently forgotten their argument already- play a video game.

Twenty or so minutes later, Robin announced that breakfast was ready and they all ate, talking about what ever came to mind.

As Starfire scooped up her last fork full of scrambled eggs, she warned everyone that they were not permitted to enter her room, as she would be wrapping her presents that afternoon. They all agreed and the alien floated back to her room.

Everyone finished up their breakfast and placed their dishes in the sink.

"I think I'm going to go wrap some presents too," Beast Boy commented. Raven looked up, instantly reminded what she needed to tell him. Closing her eyes, Raven looked back down at her food. It could wait.

"Yeah, I'm going to as well," Robin said, walking out of the room. Cyborg left as well, leaving Raven alone in the kitchen. She walked over and placed her own plate in the sink. The dishes were all stacked up. Though Robin was always persistent about everyone keeping the tower clean, he was quite lenient about washing the dishes.

Raven smirked. Everyone complained when they got nominated to wash the dishes, insisting they would melt in soap and water. What they didn't seem to realize, was that they had an industrial sized dishwasher that did a better job than hand washing.

Raven lifted the dishes with her powers and placed them all carefully in the dishwasher. She used another tendril of power to pull a large bottle of dishwasher detergent from under the sink and turned the machine on. Satisfied with the swishing sound emanating from the dishwasher, Raven turned and walked down the hall to her room.

Pulling several bags from her closet, Raven sat down on the floor. She pulled out a large tube of wrapping paper and a spool of gold ribbon that matched nicely with the thin green, red and gold stripes on the wrapping paper.

She carefully opened the paper on the floor, face down, and placed a plain white box on it. Robin's 'Starfire' doll. Raven quickly cut off enough wrapping paper to cover it and taped it around the present. Lastly, she cut a long piece of gold ribbon and tied it around the box and curled the edges of ribbon with scissors.

She repeated this with Starfire and Cyborg's presents and finished quickly. She looked at the three wrapped gifts and sighed. She had no idea what she was going to get Beast Boy. She knew she should figure it out soon, to avoid the rush of last minute shoppers, but she was being strangely picky about his gift.

Carefully placing the wrapped gifts under her bed for safe keeping until they got a tree, she stood up and left her room.

She walked down the halls of Titan's Tower, not completely sure where she was going, and stopped when she heard a strange noise coming from the room to her right. She looked over and saw that it was Beast Boy's room, and could hear the familiar sounds of Beast Boy struggling to do something.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she walked over to his door and knocked on it.

"Yes?" he called, voice straining to sound natural, despite his obvious difficulties in what ever he was doing.

"Are you all right in there?" she asked, stepping closer to the door so he could hear her better. "You sound like you need help."

There was silence for a moment and suddenly the door opened, and Beast Boy looked out at her. He didn't say anything for a moment.

"Raven, could you, maybe… help me wrap some presents?" he asked hesitantly. Raven considered it for a moment before nodding and walking into his room.

Her friend's green room was messy, as usual, but a space had been cleared out in the middle of the floor, where presents, wrapping paper and tape had been set up. In the middle of the clearing, messily taped with large gaps in it, was a partially wrapped gift box. Raven noticed as she sat down near it, that the piece of cut wrapping paper was slightly crumpled.

Beast Boy took a seat next to her and picked up the present. He looked at her sheepishly and laughed.

"I'm not all that good at wrapping," he blushed.

"I can see that," she replied. She had known before, of course, judging by the less than stratospheric wrapping job her presents had come in. She picked up the white box he had been wrapping. "Who's this one for?" she asked.

"They're Robin's boxing gloves. I tried to wrap them without the box, but it was too hard," Beast Boy explained, like a student hoping to give the right answer. Raven nodded. Beast Boy smiled, proud that he had answered right.

"This piece of wrapping paper is too small," she told him, examining the package.

"How was I supposed to know that?" he asked, genuinely confused. Raven sighed; this might be harder than she thought.

-

Half an hour later, Raven had successfully taught Beast Boy how to wrap Robin's present with only one small fight over the correct use for tape. Confident that he could figure out how to wrap the rest, Raven began to stand up, but Beast Boy caught her hand in his own. She looked at him questioningly and he smiled.

"Do you wanna say and just talk?" he asked her hopefully. "Just in case I need help with the others," he added as a precaution. Raven shrugged and sat back down.

"Just as long as you don't make anymore of your stupid 'tape beards'."

Beast Boy grinned and pulled the next present closer. It was a recipe book. Raven raised an eyebrow and Beast Boy laughed.

"It's for Starfire," he explained. "It's about time she learned how to cook some earth food instead of force feeding us Tameranian delicacies."

Raven smirked and nodded.

As Beast Boy continued slowly wrapping Starfire's present, he talked. At first it was about random things; the weather, shopping, villains; but soon they were both deep in conversation about traveling.

"Flying is the best way to go," Raven insisted. "It's fast, and cheap."

"You don't even have feathers when you fly, don't you ever get cold?" Beast Boy asked, carefully taping down some paper.

"Not really. Well, I do, but I don't mind the cold," she replied truthfully. Beast Boy nodded.

"I prefer trains," he told her.

"What, like the subway? Or the Transit?" she asked incredulously. She didn't see why anyone would like Jump City's subway; it constantly smelled of urine and dirt. The transit, or C-train, a train that traveled above ground on cables in other cities, like Steel or Gotham City was just as bad graffiti and vandalism.

"No," Beast Boy replied. "I mean, like real trains. You know, with tracks and a little red caboose."

"When did you go on one of those?" Raven asked. While there were still trains that carried things back and forth, real passenger trains were becoming an endangered species.

(AN: Okay, I'm not totally sure about all this. I'm pretty sure there aren't any passenger trains in Canada, but I don't know about the USA. There are still passenger trains in some parts of Europe, right?)

"A long time ago," Beast Boy answered. "With my parents. We were traveling through Europe to get to a boat that would take us to Africa."

Raven nodded. She knew about his story, how he had gone to Africa with his biologist parents and gotten sick. All the Titans knew about that.

"We were going to go on a train on the way back, but…" Beast Boy trailed off, but Raven didn't prod for more. She knew when things were private, and she could tell that he didn't want to say any more. Besides, she could fill in the blanks well enough. "Any way," he continued after a while. "I remember loving it. I had so much fun exploring the different parts of the train, and I fell asleep so quickly with the movement."

Raven nodded.

"You win," she told him, giving up on their min-debate.

Beast Boy smiled triumphantly and they continued talking with fairly light hearts.

After about an hour and a half, Beast Boy had finished wrapping Starfire, Robin and Cyborg's gifts. He looked over his work proudly.

"How are they?" he asked Raven, motioning at them like a prize model on a game show.

"Not bad," she admitted. "Not bad at all." Beast Boy grinned and piled the boxes up and placed them on his paper-strewn desk.

"Shall we go to the kitchen and fetch some celebratory chocolate milk?" he asked in a stereotypical sophisticated voice, playfully holding out his arm.

"Sure," Raven replied, ignoring his proffered elbow. Beast Boy shrugged and let his arm fall to his side and they walked in silence.

In the kitchen, Raven sat down at the table, and Beast Boy quickly made some instant hot chocolate. Carefully carrying the steaming mugs to the table, Beast Boy sat down next to Raven and placed a plastic bag, which he had held in his teeth, on the table.

"Marshmallows?" he offered, grabbing a hold of the sides. Raven nodded. She watched as Beast Boy pulled on the sides of the plastic, willing it to open. After some struggling, it did in a small explosion of white mini-marshmallows. The fluffy confections flew in every direction, a few landing in their cups, while the rest landed on the table, floor, or the tops of Raven and Beast Boy's heads.

Raven shot a glare at Beast Boy who laughed nervously.

"You're welcome?" he offered as a response to her glare. Raven rolled her eyes, but ceased her glaring and picked up her mug. She took a sip and they sat in relative silence, drinking their hot chocolate and enjoying each other's company.

They were both done when Cyborg walked in.

"Hey," he greeted, walking in. They nodded in response. Raven stood and carried the empty cups to the sink.

"Get your coats on," he ordered. "We're all going out to pick a tree."

"Yeah!" Beast Boy cheered, punching the air happily. "We're getting our Christmas tree, the best tree in the town, we're getting our Christmas tree, let's jump up and down!"

Raven groaned at Beast Boy's lame cheer, thanking whatever entity had been gracious enough to make Beast Boy a super hero instead of a cheerleader, and walked with the two boys down to the front landing. Robin and Starfire were ready and waiting, and they all left once Raven and Beast Boy had their coats on.

They went directly to a lot that sold nice, big pine trees. They walked through the lot and chose a large pine that wouldn't have fit in any houses with a roof lower than twelve feet tall. Luckily, the main room in the tower was bigger than most houses.

They brought the tree back to the tower, where Robin and Cyborg set it up in the corner of the living room. After dinner, Raven took on last look at the tree and went back to her room.

Sitting on her bed was a neatly wrapped package, and she knew without looking, that it was from Beast Boy. Who else would it be from?

She picked up the note and read,

_Raven,_

_Thanks for helping me wrap earlier, I hope you like how I wrapped your present. It only took me ten minutes to do after dinner. Anyway, enjoy your present._

_-Your 'secret' admirer_

Raven folded the note and placed it to the side. She picked up the flat present and looked at the wrapping job. It was pretty nice. It was strange how someone who had made her such nice gifts had so much trouble wrapping. She tore under the tape and looked at the book inside.

It was a silver and purple journal. She furrowed her brows. It was strange; she had never considered writing in a journal before, but it seemed like such a perfect gift. Now that she really thought about it, a journal would be nice to have, like a sort of meditation.

She placed the book under her pillow and threw the wrapping paper in the small trash bin in the corner of her room.

-

Raven tossed under the blankets of her bed. She had been trying to sleep for an hour now, but the same thought was keeping her awake. Why hadn't she told Beast Boy? She had plenty of time to tell him that day, spending as much time as she did with him while he wrapped presents. It was almost ironic, how she hadn't brought up the subject of his giving her presents, while he wrapped presents.

Staring at the ceiling with a set jaw, she decided that she would have to look at the situation like an outsider. Obviously there was some psychological explanation for her procrastination in telling Beast Boy she wasn't interested.

Closing her eyes, Raven concentrated on an image of Starfire in her mind.

"_Please, friend Raven, why do I not wish to give Robin the 'shoulder of cold'?" _the image implored.

"Because you love him," Raven replied out loud, immediately wincing. Raven sighed. She replayed the scene several times, phrasing it differently each time. Each time she got the same answer.

Growling in frustration, Raven rolled onto her side.

"Okay," she said to her empty room. "I _might_ like him as a little more than a friend. Just a little. But it doesn't mean anything. It's just a small crush, developed from flattery at the gifts."

Satisfied, although not completely happy with her conclusion, Raven was able to drift off into an easy sleep.

* * *

I'm so sorry! I tried to update yesterday, I really did, but I was so busy! I had a costume fitting, then I had to clean the house because we have family coming over today, then I had to help out at Mom's children's Christmas perty at work, then I had to babysit for six screaming children until twelve in the morning! As you can probably tell, I'm still quite tired. I just felt like I should post early today, to make up for it. There'll be a another chapter later today!

As always, thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. I really appreciate it!

Tammy Tamborine


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Raven yawned, walking into the main room. The scent of a newly cut pine tree filled the room. In the corner the large evergreen sat where Cyborg had put it the other day, taking up a large portion of space.

The room was empty as Raven walkedto the stoveand began making her tea. She was sitting on the couch, reading a book and drinking her tea, when Beast Boy walked in. Unsurprisingly, he looked like he was only half-awake, as he flopped down on the couch. He stretched out on his side, as there was plenty of room on the large sofa.

They sat in silence as Raven read and Beast Boy watched TV. After a while, Beast Boy turned off the television and sat up. He looked at Raven. Sensing his eyes on her, she looked up. He seemed like he was about to say something, but stopped and shook his head. Silently he walked over to the kitchen area and made himself a bowl of cereal with soymilk.

The rest of the Titans began to fill the room and eventually everyone was seated around the main room.

"Friends, I believe we should put up the decorations of Christmas!" Starfire exclaimed as she floated around the room.

Robin agreed and he and Cyborg went into the basement to drag the decorations upstairs. They made several trips up, but after about twenty minutes, they announced that all the decorations were upstairs.

Robin, ever the leader, quickly began assigning everyone jobs. He told Cyborg, Raven and Starfire to put up the lights outside, since Raven and Starfire could fly and Cyborg would know the best way to put the lights up. He and Beast Boy would hang up garlands and wreaths around the tower.

"All right!" Beast Boy exclaimed, happy that he didn't have to go outside. He looked around the main room. "So, where are the garlands?"

Robin pointed at one corner of the room and Beast Boy's jaw dropped.

"Those are the garlands!" he pointed at the pile incredulously. "That pile is bigger than _I_ am!"

"Most things are bigger than you, Beast Boy," Raven commented sarcastically. The boy shot her a glare, but for the most part her comment went ignored.

"Yeah, it took Cyborg and I about five trips down to get them all up," Robin admitted, looking at the large pile that was indeed bigger than Beast Boy. "But it's a big tower, what did you expect?"

Grumbling, Beast Boy picked up an armful and followed Robin down the hall. Raven suppressed a giggle, and followed Starfire and Cyborg outside.

They spent over an hour attaching the lights to the tower, under Cyborg's instruction. They started at the top, where Cyborg's ladder couldn't reach, and made their way down. Once they had almost reached the ground, Cyborg told them he would take over. They smiled and went inside the tower to warm up.

The two girls made hot chocolate and sat down on the couch. Starfire turned on the TV and Raven sat down and tried to read her book. Robin and Beast Boy came in a few minutes later and began hanging garlands around to room. After about twenty minutes, Raven gave up trying to read. She couldn't concentrate. It wasn't because of the noise from the TV, or because of Robin and Starfire talking over the sound of the TV, or Beast Boy's rather off key singing of _Deck the Halls_... well, at least mostly.

The empath's thoughts kept drifting to Beast Boy. Questions had constantly been tugging at her mind the past few days, and she wasn't sure about any of the answers.

Cyborg came in as Robin and Beast Boy were putting up the last of the garlands that twisted around the room.

"Lights are up!" he announced.

"Glorious! Now we must all do the decoration of the tree!" exclaimed Starfire.

The group of friends gathered around the large tree. Each had their own box of tree decorations, and Beast Boy and Robin had put small lights and tinsel on the tree already.

Robin reached into the box and pulled out a shiny red Christmas ball. As he placed the ornament on the tree, the others reached into their own boxes and pulled out the tree decorations.

They each put on shiny balls and baubles and they chatted happily as they decorated the tree. Finally, Starfire placed the shiny gold star on the top of the tree. She floated down the ground and stood with her friends. Cyborg turned off the light and they all admired their handy work.

Everyone could tell which ornaments belonged to whom. Robins were all red or gold, Beast Boy's were green and pink, Cyborg's were blue and white, Starfire's were orange and light purple, and Raven's were dark purple and silver. The different colors looked pretty together.

"It is most beautiful!" exclaimed Starfire, eyes twinkling in colorful lights.

"Yeah, it is," agreed Robin, looking at Starfire.

Cyborg and Beast Boy sniggered a little at Robin's expense, but were both still in awe of the beautifully sparkling tree.

After a while, Cyborg turned the light on and announced,

"It's finally dark out. Anyone want to see the lights outside?"

Everyone agreed and ran to the door. After bundling up in snow gear, they went outside and lined up in front of the tower. Snow fell down gently. Cyborg walked over to the extension cord and plugged it into the outside electric socket. All of the Titans gasped as the tower lit up.

On an ordinary night, the tower was impressive when all it's lights were on, but this was different. Red, green and white lights shone onto the sparkling snow. The snow softly falling seemed like sparkling fairy dust in the colorful lights.

Beast Boy looked over at Raven, who was standing at his left. The bright colors lit up her skin, making it look like silver, and the smallest hint of a smile played on her lips. He wasn't sure what made him do it, but he grabbed her hand in his. When she looked at him to ask why he was holding her hand, he had already turned back to look at the tower. Beast Boy expected her to just shake his hand off, but was surprised when she just looked back at the tower. He smiled and continued to gaze at the magical sight.

Cyborg, Starfire and Robin watched silently and smiled at each other.

Robin was overcome by a sudden surge of confidence. If Beast Boy could grab _Raven_ of all people's hands, surely he could place his arm around Starfire.

Casually, he lifted his arm and draped it around Starfire's shoulders. He almost sighed in relief when, instead of pushing him away, the alien princess leaned into him.

Cyborg felt un-masculin giggles rise in him, which he suppressed, as he watched all his friends. He was happy for them, he really was. He just hoped that all his friends would get together soon.

As the five Titans stood together, looking at the brightly-lit tower, Raven felt a bit more Christmas spirit rise up in her.

* * *

I didn't really like this chapter, I'm not sure why though. It just wasn't very good. It wasn't very long either. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed for the last chapter, I love hearing what people think of my work.

Tammy Tamborine


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Raven woke up clutching a stuffed bear tightly to her chest. At first she was slightly surprised, but she quickly remembered that it was the gift Beast Boy had left for her the night before.

She reached up lazily, picked up the note sitting on her bedside table and reread it.

_Raven,_

_I hope you like your presents so far. I saw this and thought of you, I'm not sure why though._

_-Your 'secret' admirer _

Raven looked down at the bear in her arms. It had dark fur, a cross between black and blue. Its glass eyes were dark purple. The interesting part though, was the green heart stitched on its chest. It was definitely a unique bear, and Raven had never been much for stuffed toys, but she had loved it the moment she saw it. She was stumped as to why, though.

Squeezing the bear one last time, she placed it on her pillow and sat up, stretching her arms.

She quickly padded across her room and changed into warm clothes. She made her way down the halls of the tower into the kitchen, where Starfire and Cyborg were eating quietly at the table .

She walked over to the stove to boil water for tea, and Starfire looked up from her toast. The alien put the toast, smothered in some strange pink alien spread, and floated over to Raven.

"Raven, I have been meaning to ask you, what is this… 'Christmas caroling' I heard of on the television?"

Raven poured the hot water into a mug and replied, "Caroling is when a group of people go around singing Christmas songs."

"What is the purpose of this?" Starfire asked, watching Raven stir her tea.

"For entertainment," Raven replied vaguely.

"Yes," Starfire nodded, contemplating the idea. "Friends, we should do the caroling!"

"You want to go caroling?" asked Robin, walking into the room. Starfire floated over to him and began batting her eyes. Raven sighed, knowing that Robin was putty in Starfire's hands when she started fluttering her eyelashes at him.

"Please, Robin," she begged, in her sweet voice. "It would be most enjoyable!"

Robin smiled and replied, "Of course, Star. We can go today."

"Glorious!" the girl exclaimed, soaring around the room.

"What have you gotten us into, Robin?" Raven hissed, taking a sip of her tea.

"Oh, lighten up, Raven," Cyborg said through a mouthful of cereal. "It'll be fun!"

"What'll be fun?" Beast Boy asked, walking into the room, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"We're going caroling today," replied Robin, walking over to the fridge.

Beast Boy nodded and smiled and slumped over to the table, where he lay his head down sleepily.

Everyone ate breakfast, talking about their plans for the day. They decided that they would go skating in the afternoon, have a quick dinner around five, and then go caroling. Everyone was excited about it, except for Raven. She didn't think that she would have a bad time, or that she wouldn't have fun, but she didn't want t go because of her voice.

She had always been self-conscious about her voice. Growing up in Azarath, she had grown up around a people who loved music. Every Azarathian grew up singing and had a beautiful singing voice, but Raven's voice had always paled in comparison to theirs. Now, she didn't want her friends to know how badly she sang.

She decided that all she could do was sing quietly, if at all, while they were caroling. If she stood close to Cyborg, his booming bass voice would drown her out anyway.

Robin finished his breakfast first and ran off, Starfire following close behind, to print some lyrics off the computer. Cyborg left next to find their skates from their resting-places in the basement. Beast Boy was next, off to do… well, Raven wasn't quite sure what.

Raven read on the couch while her friends ran around preparing for the day's activities.

After a quick lunch, everyone piled into the T-car and they made their way to the skating rink.

Jump City's most popular skating rink was in the park in center of the city, and was one of the most popular places in town in winter. People often came just to play in the snow around the rink.

They all got out of the car and walked through the park to the ice rink. Sitting down on benches, everyone took their boots off and pulled on skates none of them knew they even had.

Beast Boy finished lacing his and looked down at them with a doubtful expression on his face. Raven noticed and slid across the now mostly empty bench.

"What's wrong? Don't you know how to skate?" she asked, watching his face carefully.

"What? Of course I know how to skate!Why wouldn't I know how to skate? Everyone knows how to skate… hehe," Beast Boy laughed nervously. Raven saw right through his lies, but decided to play along. She shrugged and stood up. Beast Boy stood up as well, stumbling a bit, but pretending to remain calm. She let him take the lead.

He walked over to the ice. He glanced at it hesitantly before stepping onto it gingerly. He took a few awkward steps across the ice without falling and let out a sigh of relief. However, as he let himself relax, he began to slip. He yelped and braced himself for his impact with the ice, but was caught by surprise when a pair of thin, yet strong,arms caught him. He looked up to see Raven's upside down face looking at him with neither scorn, nor surprise, merely slight amusement.

"Okay, so maybe I can't skate," he admitted sheepishly. Raven smirked and helped him stand upright. "I was pretty young when I went to Africa, andMombasa doesn't exactly get snow in the winter," he explained, grasping Raven's arm to stop from slipping again.

"Well, you can learn now," Raven offered.

"You'll help me?" Beast Boy asked hopefully. She nodded and he smiled his gratitude.

She helped Beast Boy skate around the rink, him holding onto her arm for balance, and told him all the basic things to remember. By their third time around, Beast Boy was getting good, and was able to skate by himself, but he kept his grasp on Raven's arm. He allowed his grip to loosen, but held her arm in the crook of his elbow. Raven chose not to comment on it.

They continued to skate for a few more hours, talking with each other and sometimes their other friends. After a while, Raven decided to sit down. She told Beast Boy, and he let go of her arm so she could leave. He skated over to Cyborg and Robin, who were preparing to race.

Raven sat on the bench and watched as the boys raced across the ice. Robin usually came in first, being lean and fast in everything he did. Cyborg usually came in second, though he did beat Robin a few times, using sheer leg power. Beast Boy came in last, using the excuse that he had just learned to skate that day.

Starfire joined Raven after a while, tiring of skating around in circles alone. They watched the boys for a few more minutes before they decided to stop their racing. They skated over to the girls and asked what they wanted for dinner. They all decided to just get hot-dogs at a stand in the park (it also sold tofu dogs for Beast Boy) and Cyborg, Starfire and Robin left to get them.

Raven looked around. She didn't see anyone, except a few people walking around the park. She wondered for a second where Beast Boy was, but decided he had probably gone to the washroom or something.

She stood up and skated to the middle of the empty rink, increasing her speed as she neared the center and pushed herself off the ice. She performed a perfect triple axle. Landingon the ice, shecontinued slowlyskating backwards.

"It's not fair," a voice said behind her. Startled, Raven nearly fell, but she steadied herself and turned to see Beast Boy watching her. "You're good at everything."

His words sounded bitter, but the smile on his face said otherwise.

"I may have been using my powers a little," she informed him, skating over to where he was standing. Small flakes of snow had begun falling, glittering in the lights around the rink that had come on since the sun went down a few minutes ago.

"Still, you're better than most," he insisted. "I bet you'll be even better when we go caroling."

Raven frowned slightly and skated past him to sit on the bench.

"You would lose that bet," she told him, unlacing her skates. Beast Boy was about to reply, but was interrupted when the other Titans came over with dinner.

They all ate, and Beast Boy didn't bring up Raven's skating or caroling.

Throwing away napkins, everyone looked around the park. It had filled up again, now that most people had eaten dinner. People were skating, playing in the snow, or just walking around the park's winter wonderland.

They grouped together on the snow-covered grass under a lamppost and Robin handed each of them sheets of paper with lyrics printed on them.

"Okay, everyone knows all these songs?" Robin asked. They flipped through the stapled papers and nodded. Even Starfire, although Robin had needed tospend all morning teaching them to her. "Good. Some parts will be highlighted. I thought it would be nice of we had some solos. Anything in green will be Beast Boy's, blue is for Cyborg, pink for Starfire, yellow for me, and purple for Raven."

"But-" Raven's protests were cut off by a stern look from Robin. He obviously thought that she was trying to ruin the fun and spirit of caroling. Without allowing her another word they all began a cheerful chorus of 'Jingle Bells' and 'Deck the Halls'. By the end of the second song, a small group had gathered around the Titans.

Raven had been lucky so far, able to sing quietly and not having any solos. They finished singing 'Oh Christmas Tree' to a round of applause from the gathered crowd and they flipped to the next page where Raven's face paled. The song, 'It Came Upon a Midnight Clear', only had four stanzas, but the entire third and fourth stanzas were highlighted in purple.

She sang the beginning of the song with her friends, dreading how she would mutilate such a beautiful song, until it was finally her turn for a solo. She looked over at Beast Boy who gave her an encouraging smile and she took a deep breath.

"_Yet with the woes of sin and strife,  
The world hath suffered long;  
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled,  
Two thousand years of wrong;  
And man, at war with man, hears not,  
The love song which they bring:  
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,  
And hear the angels sing. _

_For lo! the days are hastening on,  
By prophet bards foretold,  
When, with the ever-circling years,  
Shall come the Age of Gold;  
When peace shall over all the earth,  
Its ancient splendors fling,  
And all the world give back the song,  
Which now the angels sing."_

She was greeted by loud applause from a stunned audience. Her voice had been smooth, changing from high to low easily and clear as a bell. Perhaps her voice hadn't been up to snuff on Azarath, but here it was more than exceptional.

She looked over at Beast Boy who smiled at her knowingly, like he had known all along that she would be amazing. She smiled back at him and they flipped to the next page.

They all continued singing songs, Raven's voice slightly more audible than before. Each took turns singing solos. Beast Boy sangI Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas' and 'Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer' and a few other songs quite eagerly. Raven, Cyborg and Robin took turns singing more traditional carols, like 'Hark! the Herald Angles Sing' and 'Winter Wonderland'. Starfire did her best singing solos in some of the simpler carols, 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'and 'Frosty the Snowman', for example.

One song Raven found particularly amusing, was 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', which they all took turns singing. Beast Boy seemed quite enthusiastic about it as well.

They finished with 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' before running out of songs to sing and leaving their appraising crowd to go home. It was getting late. They walked down the streets of town, to get to the parking lot Cyborg had parked in. On the way, they passed the toy store she and Beast Boy had looked in a couple days ago. The train display was still set up in the window, puffing merrily down the track. Raven noticed out of the corner of her eye, that Beast Boy looked at it as they passed.

She knew then, exactly what she wanted to get him for Christmas. She made a mental note of what street the toy store was on and kept walking with her friends. They got to the car and drove home.

At the tower everyone drank egg nog by the Christmas tree and then went to bed. Beast Boy left first, followed by Starfire and Cyborg. Raven stopped Robin as he began to leave.

"Robin, we don't have any plans tomorrow, do we?" Raven asked, thinking about the rush that she had tried to avoid thus far.

"Didn't I tell you?" asked Robin incredulously. "We're all going over to Bruce's house tomorrow."

Raven looked at him in disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me," she sighed, rubbing her temples. "What about the day after?"

"Haven't you looked at the fridge recently? The Titans East invited us to a Christmas party at their tower," replied Robin, looking at Raven as she swore loudly. "Why do you want to know?"

"I still need to get Beast Boy's present," she grumbled, sweeping over to the kitchen to boil water for tea.

"You still haven't gotten a present for Beast Boy?" Robin exclaimed, following her across the room.

"Shut up," she replied as calmly as she could. "No, I haven't. I couldn't find anything… special enough. But I know what I'm getting him now, and I need to go get it at some point."

"I guess your going to have to go on Christmas Eve," replied Robin, sitting down in a chair.

Raven sat down next to him and sighed.

"I know."

They sat in silence for a while as Raven drank her tea.

"I understand," Robin said at last. Raven rose an eyebrow and he continued. "You were trying to find the perfect gift for him because you really care for him. Maybe even as more than a friend. I know, I went through the same thing with Sta- uh… like I was saying, you obviously like Beast Boy more than you let on."

Raven glared at him lightly before sighing. She would have told him that the very idea was preposterous, that he didn't know what he was talking about, much the same as she had been telling herself for the past eight days, but as she looked at him she knew she couldn't. She could lie to herself, but she couldn't lie to Robin; he was like a brother to her… closer even, like a twin.

"I think I might like him. Almost as much as you like Starfire," She told him, smirking slightly at the red blush that crossed his features at her last statement. "But I don't want to."

"Why not?" Robin asked her, looking at her closely.

"It just wouldn't work," Raven replied. "I'm so dark, I can't be the fun girl I know he wants to be with."

"Beast Boy likes you just the way you are," Robin told her. "Maybe he doesn't want another Terra." Raven winced at the geomancer's name, but continued.

"Maybe not," replied Raven. "But even if he did love me, I couldn't show him love back without my powers destroying him and everything else."

"I'm not so sure about that," replied Robin thoughtfully. "You've been having fun this whole week, how do you know it would be any different if you tried to love?"

Raven became slightly flustered and began to tell him that it was different somehow, though she wasn't sure how,but he continued.

"And you fell for Malchior, right?" Raven scowled at the dragon mentioned. "And at that time your powers were under more control than I've ever seen them, except maybe when you defeated Trigon."

"What is this, a trip down memory lane?" Raven asked sarcastically. Robin sniggered and replied,

"No, I'm just trying to make a point. You can love Beast Boy, I think you're just afraid."

"I'm not afraid," Raven snapped, slamming her cup down on the table. Robin sighed.

"It's okay, Raven. Love is a scary thing."

Raven nodded, looking down at her tea.

"But it's great… isn't it?" Robin added, smirking. Raven smiled and nodded. They sat in companionable silence and Raven finished her tea. She put her cup in the sink and walked to her room.

She opened her door and smiled. Sitting there on her bed was another gift. It was wrapped nicer than her first few gifts, but she could tell it was wrapped hastily. She picked up the note.

_Raven,_

_Thanks for helping me learn how to skate. I had fun. Caroling was fun too. I know you didn't think your voice was nice, and you still might not think it's great, but I think your voice was beautiful. Like a crystal bell._

_-Your 'secret' admirer_

Raven folded the note and opened the gift. It was in a small white box and when she opened it, she gasped. A glass- not crystal, but still quite nice- bell sat inside,surrounded by protective bubble wrap.

She pulled it out and listened to the pretty tinkling noise it made. She smiled and put it down on her nightstand, next to the other gifts.

She got ready for bed and slipped under the covers. She looked at her gifts and smiled. Beast Boy did care about her. She wasn't sure if it was just great friendship, a small crush or- dare she hope?- love, on his part, but she was beginning to realize the depths of her feelings, and it sent a warm feeling of peace through her. Picking up the bear off her pillow, Raven hugged it and slipped into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

I love caroling. I go with my family every year. You'd think it would get embarrassing after a while, but somethow it doesn't. I have a very large and musical family. We really don't sound that bad. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, I enjoyed writing it. Thank you to all reviewers thus far! 

Tammy Tamborine


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Bruce Wayne lived in a big mansion. A very big mansion. Raven wondered why someone who lived alone, except for his butler, would need such a large house. How did he ever get enough furniture to fill all those rooms? The Titan's looked up at the seven-story house and Robin smiled.

"We're here," he informed them unnecessarily.

Raven watched as Cyborg walked around to the trunk of the T-car and opened it up. He pulled out a large stack of presents and handed another to Beast Boy.

"Dude, what does a millionaire need with all these presents?" Beast Boy whined, staggering under the weight of the four presents he was carrying. Robin walked past him carrying seven wrapped gifts and sighed in slight frustration.

"I told you already. There are gifts for Bruce and for Alfred and the rest are for a toy drive Bruce is sponsoring."

Grumbling, Beast Boy followed them into the large mansion. An old man, who greeted them all warmly, let them in.

"Master Richard, and the rest of the Titans! So good to see all of you," he smiled, clapping Robin on the back.

"Hello Alfred," replied Robin, wrapping one arm around the butler and holding the gifts in his other hand. "It's good to see you too. You've met my friends?"

"Yes, I believe we all met at Master Bruce's New Years party last year," Alfred replied, smiling at the others. Raven mumbled acknowledgments and greetings along with the other Titans and took her shoes and jacket off. She handed her coat to a patiently waiting maid. "Please, come into the living room. Master Bruce is waiting for you all in there."

Robin led the way to Bruce's living room, used for hosting guests. The middle aged man was sitting in an armchair by the fire when they walked in. He turned around and greeted them all. He pointed out a corner of the room for them to place the charity toys in and they all sat down on the plush couch and chairs set around the room.

"So, Richard," Bruce began. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good Bruce," Robin replied. "You remember everyone else?" It was a statement. Robin called his mentor often enough that Bruce knew the Titans better than most acquaintances.

"Ah, yes. Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy and the beautiful Starfire," Bruce smiled, greeting them all. "I have to say, Starfire, Richard's told me so much about you that I was a bit disappointed that we weren't able to get better acquainted at my New Year party last year." Starfire blushed, smiling, and Beast Boy and Cyborg giggled on the couch, earning a glare from Robin.

As everyone chatted amiably, Raven inspected the room. The walls were a deep crimson, with wood paneling. The floor was made of the same dark wood, with a few Persian carpets placed sporadically around the room. Dark red curtains covered the windows, blocking out the late afternoon light (they had left Jump City at twelve in the afternoon and the trip from Jump to Gotham took three hours each way), but the room was sufficiently lit by a large crackling fire on one wall. The walls were covered with pictures and a large bookshelf. The rest of the room was richly furnished.

They all talked for a few hours, catching up and getting to know each other until Alfred announced that dinner was ready. They made their way into the dinning room and sat together at the large wooden table, already set with food, plates and utensils.

Everyone- including Alfred, who was like family- dished up their food and began to eat.

"So, Cyborg," Bruce said conversationally, cutting his roast beef. "Maybe you could fill me in on the couples status in Titans Tower?"

Cyborg snorted with laughter though his own mashed potatoes, and Bruce smirked as blushes crossed the other Titans' features. Raven felt a faint blush on her own face, though she knew that Cyborg couldn't know that she was developing feelings for Beast Boy… could he?

"Well," replied Cyborg, fully intent on giving him a truthful and thorough answer. "Boy Blunder over there has been growing even more infatuated with a certain alien princess by the day. The girl in question is obviously just as smitten."

Bruce laughed heartily, while Robin glared at Cyborg and Starfire politely pretended not to have heard anything despite the shades of crimson covering her noise and cheeks. Beast Boy giggled into his meal of specially prepared tofu and stir-fried vegetables and Cyborg continued.

"Meanwhile, our little green friend over here has been spending much time with a certain empath, who doesn't seem to mind very much."

By now Bruce was nearly falling from his chair in laughter, if not from Cyborg's explanations, from the reactions his explanations brought forth.

Raven sent her most personal death glare towards Cyborg, accompanied by Robin's own less threatening, but still fairly intimidating glare. Starfire was still blushing and pushing food around on her plate and Beast Boy had suddenly found a very interesting spot on the wall that demanded all his attention.

Alfred smirked and spoke up, "Perhaps the subjects of this conversation might appreciate a change in topic?"

"Oh, you teenagers," Bruce smiled fondly, eyes twinkling with laughter. "We're only joking. Cyborg's not being serious and I know none of you are having secret love affairs."

Raven narrowed her eyes at his joke, but was satisfied with the change of subject when Cyborg began talking about cars. It turned out that Bruce had a car that was important to him as well.

As Raven sipped at her soup, she wondered vaguely if Beast Boy's presents counted as a love affair? No, of course not, she told herself. She pushed the idea from her head and continued eating her dinner in relative silence, only speaking when spoken to, as per usual.

Once everyone had finished eating they returned to the sitting room. Bruce focused his attention on Starfire, who had begun examining an abstract picture in the corner of the room. Cyborg and Robin talked on the couch about whatever came to mind and Beast Boy wandered the room mindlessly. Raven was almost magnetically drawn to the large bookshelf covering most of the far wall and she quickly chose a book and sat down by the fireplace to read it.

As soon as she had opened the book to read, however, Beast Boy walked over and sat down next to her. Unfortunately for Raven, she was sitting in a one-person chair.

Beast Boy squished into the seat, causing both of them to shift so that Raven ended up partially sitting on Beast Boy's lap.

Raven glared at the boy, who smiled at her like nothing unnatural had happened.

"You do realize that it's things like this that make Cyborg think you have feelings for me," Raven informed him. She knew she hadn't mentioned her own feelings, and hoped Beast Boy hadn't noticed.

"What if I don't care?" asked Beast Boy, smirking. Raven blushed a bit, and was glad for the fireplace spreading its red-ish glow across her face and disguising her blush. Without saying anything else, Beast Boy stood up and walked away. As he walked away, Raven felt a slight weight pressing against her legs. She looked down and noticed there was something sitting in her lap. It was a present.

She glanced around the room, glad to see that no one had noticed and looked back down at the present in her lap. She picked up the note and unfolded it carefully.

_Raven,_

_I can't believe I got the nerve to actually give you your present instead of leaving it on your bed. I probably ran away right after giving it to you, didn't I? Well, this is hard enough for me to write, I have no idea what I would say to you if I were there when you read this note._

_This is hard, so I guess I'll just come out and say it… I like you. Like, like-like you. I know this might make you feel uncomfortable around me… but please don't. If it makes you feel any better, I've liked you for a long time. _

_Anyway, I just thought I should let you know. I guess that's why I've been giving you all these presents, and why I'm going to keep giving them to you. Even if you don't feel the same about me, my feelings for you aren't going to change, so I may as well keep giving you your presents, right?_

_Uh… if you feel the same, please don't tell me yet. If you don't feel the same, still don't tell me yet. Wait until… I don't know… just, not now… please. _

_-Your 'secret' admirer_

Raven read the note, reread it, then read it and reread it again. She couldn't believe it. He liked her. She wondered why he didn't want her to tell him how she felt. She could understand that he was scared that she wouldn't feel the same, but why shouldn't she tell him that the feeling was mutual? Deciding to mull it over some other time, Raven looked back at the paper in her hands.

She looked down at the bottom of the note. It said "-Your 'secret' admirer" as usual, but if she looked closely she could see that that spot had been erased a few times. She edged closer to the fire and looked at the marks left from the erased pencil. She could see the erased words 'From your friend' but underneath that it said something else. Did that say… 'love'? 'Love Beast Boy'?

Raven's heart was pounding as she lowered the note. She was about to throw the note into the flames, like she had done to the others over candles in her room, but she stopped. Looking at the note again, she folded it up and placed it in her pocket.

She picked up the present. It was flat, like the journal and the picture frame he had given her, but thinner. She unwrapped it carefully, revealing a folded piece of cardboard, which she opened. Inside was a charcoal sketch of a beautiful girl, looking down at something. A book, perhaps? Looking at the picture carefully, Raven realized it was her, reading. At the corner of the page Beast Boy had messily scrawled his signature.

-

As they drove Beast Boy looked around restlessly. Everyone else was looking out their windows or driving, but he couldn't while he was sitting in the middle. Robin had claimed the front passenger seat, and Raven and Starfire were sitting on either side of him looking out their windows. He pulled out a hand held gamestation and began defeating 'evil alien scum'.

Raven looked up from her window at the sound of Beast Boy's game. She found the beeping a buzzing noises annoying. She turned to ask Beast Boy to turn the sound off, but stopped.

As she watched him play, she noticed that his fingers were working hard to keep up with the game, and his eyes were glued to the lit up screen, but his gaze didn't seem to be focused on the game. It was more like he was thinking. Raven wasn't sure how she knew this, but she didn't care. As she watched him, she wondered what he was thinking about.

Maybe he was thinking of her. Raven knew it was possible, now that she had read his letter.

She had been watching him for a few minutes when she realized his green eyes were fixed on her.

"What are you staring at?" Beast Boy asked, amusement in his voice.

"Nothing," Raven replied calmly. She turned to face her window. She heard a click to her left and looked over to see Beast Boy turning his game off.

"This was bugging you, wasn't it?" asked Beast Boy, holding the game up.

"Sort of," Raven replied. It had been bugging her, but that hadn't been the reason she had been staring at him. "What were you thinking about?" asked Raven. As soon as the words left her mouth she wondered why she had asked.

"Nothing," Beast Boy replied, smiling mysteriously. Raven felt her curiosity stir, but turned away from him and opened her book. She realized that it was too dark in the car to read at this time of night, so she closed it and returned to looking out the window.

She was looking at a heard of sleeping cows when she felt Beast Boy shift a bit so his hand was casually resting on her knee. To the casual observer, it only looked like Beast Boy had moved to get more comfortable and his hand had just happened to land on her knee, but when Raven glanced up at him, she saw the mischievous glint in his eyes. Raising an eyebrow, Raven looked back out the window.

It wasn't long, however, before she felt his hand being lifted and dropped onto the seat next to her thigh. Raven did her best to ignore this. She was starting to realize he was testing her. He still didn't know how she felt, so he was trying to see by inching closer to her. After a while, she felt his hand slowly rising again.

This time, he made it look like he was yawning, stretching his arms in the air, but as he lowered his arm, it mysteriously draped itself around Raven's shoulders. Both her eyebrows raised so high, she risked losing them in her hairline.

She looked over at Beast Boy, who refused to meet her eyes. Instead he leaned his weight on her and rested his head on her shoulder. She looked down at his green head as he pretended to sleep. She knew he was faking; his breathing hadn't slowed, he was tense (probably getting ready for her imminent anger at his actions), and she could practically feel his goofy smile being forced down for sake of his pretense.

Surprising herself, and probably Beast Boy as well, Raven just turned her head and continued to look out the window with the green boy leaning on her.

She ignored Starfire's quiet giggles and Cyborg's laughing gaze in the rearview window and Robin looking back and smiling knowingly every ten minutes.

They stayed like that for the entire ride. Eventually Beast Boy really did fall asleep, but Raven remained wide-awake. She remained focused on the blurring scenery, except for the few times she stopped to wonder why it felt so right to be sitting so close to Beast Boy, or why she didn't care that her friends continued to look at them like the may as well have been making out in the back seat.

Resting her head against the cool window, Raven wondered what life would be like when she could tell Beast Boy that she felt the same. He wouldn't change his mind about his feelings, Raven was sure. Or, at least, mostly sure. She didn't care. All she knew was that someone cared about her, and she cared about him. For once, pessimistic thoughts seemed the farthest from her mind they had ever been.

As the T-car drove silently though the countryside to Jump City, Raven watched the bright stars and thought happy thoughts. And Raven's heart grew three sizes that day.

* * *

Lol, sorry about that last line. I love How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The old one,the new one is stupid.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. I have to say, it's probably one of my favorites.But it doesn't matter what I think, I want to kow what you think! Review and tell me! Thanksto everyone who has so far!You all rock!

Tammy Tamborine


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Raven watched the large buildings of Steel City- all appropriately constructed of steel- from the passenger seat as they passed through. They were closing in on the Titans East Tower.

They hovered across the water and entered the Tower belonging to the other Titans. They were greeted warmly by BumbleBee. Beast Boy handed her the large basket of baked Christmas goodies and she led them into the main room. The other Titans East members were busy decorating.

Raven watched them for a few minutes. She noticed that decorating would have been a quick procedure, but Mas and Menos kept stopping to talk to everyone. They had been working on their English, and felt the need to stop and show off their language skills every five minutes, even if their comments were pointless.

"Welcome Titans!" They cheered, running over as they entered. Raven felt dizzy just watching the two boys run around like sugar high hamsters. "The dog run fast! We run fast too!"

The Teen Titans looked around. The party didn't start for hours, but they had volunteered to go early to help prepare for the party.

Raven walked over to the kitchen with Starfire and Bee. The guys decorated the tower, setting up even more garlands around the room than there had been before, while Raven and the other two girls spent their time in the kitchen, making snacks for the guests to munch on. Once several hundred sandwiches, cookies, cheese platters and numerous other party snacks had been made and put on trays and bowls, they set them all up on a long table set by the pool and covered in holly.

The guests began arriving around six o'clock. There were a few people from the JLA, as well as important people in Steel City and friends the Titans East had made. Once all the guests had arrived, the main room of the Tower was crowded with people and Christmas tunes were being played loudly through speakers Cyborg had apparently set up when he helped build the tower.

Raven looked around at the group of party guests and sighed. She would rather be back at the tower, or out getting Beast Boy's present. She could just leave, but she didn't want to be rude.

Sighing, Raven ran a hand through her hair. How would she survive the five and a half remaining hours until the party ended? Mulling over these thoughts, Raven walked over to the refreshment table.

She picked up a cookie on the tray nearest and took a bite. It was actually pretty good, despite the fact that both she and Starfire had been helping. Once she had realized how badly the two girls cooked, BumbleBee had done most of the work while Raven and Starfire had followed orders. Placing the last chunk of shortbread into her mouth, Raven picked up a cup of eggnog.

She had never tried eggnog before, but it was a popular holiday drink, so it had to be good, right? She looked into its depths wearily and took a hesitant gulp. The thick liquid sloshed into her mouth and she immediately spat it back into her cup.

"Very lady-like," someone laughed beside her. Raven turned to glare at the changeling standing next to her with a cup of eggnog in his own green hand.

"I've never tried eggnog before," she defended herself, brushing past Beast Boy and depositing her paper cup in a large trash can behind him.

"Yeah, I didn't like it the first time either," Beast Boy replied amiably. Raven didn't reply. Instead she walked over to a chair by the table and sat down.

She was suddenly feeling very uncomfortable around the green boy. She knew she shouldn't, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why, but she did. She glanced up at him, hiding her nervousness. He looked at her oddly, as if wondering what she was thinking.

Then she realized. She felt uncomfortable around him because of their feelings. She knew they both liked each other, and she was pretty sure Beast Boy had some idea from the car ride the other day, but the unsaid words hung over them heavily.

She stood up awkwardly and walked towards the doorway.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Raven lied. If everything went well, she wouldn't have to come back at all and she could just hide out in the bathroom until the party ended.

"Wait!" Beast Boy called out when she reached the doorway. He ran over and stood in front of her awkwardly. She watched him blush and rub the back of his neck as she waited for him to continue. She watched his emerald eyes look up and she followed his gaze.

Above her head hung her worst Christmas enemy: mistletoe. She looked at Beast Boy and felt her face grow red. She felt a strong urge to just lean over and kiss the boy before he exploded from embarrassment- his face was already turning a bright red that could rival Robin's uniform- but she didn't. She felt too self-conscious.

"Did you know mistletoe is poisonous to ingest?" Raven asked quietly. She mentally slapped herself when she realized that that probably sounded stupid, or worse, like she was telling him to leave her alone. Sadly, her nervous rambling continued. "It can cause nausea, indigestion…"

She continued listing unpleasant side effects of mistletoe, internally yelling at herself to shut up the whole time. Luckily he just laughed lightly at her obvious nervousness and remained in his spot. She had listed several side effects when suddenly she found she couldn't any more.

She gasped slightly when Beast Boy abruptly grabbed her arms and pulled her closer, pressing his lips against hers. She returned the kiss quickly before he pulled away.

Blushing and mumbling something Raven couldn't distinguish and he disappeared into the crowd. Touching her lips lightly, Raven smiled and walked down the hall to the washroom.

She would still hide out in there until the party ended, but that was just because she didn't like parties.

As she closed the door behind her, Raven slid to the ground and stared dreamily at the turtle print shower curtains. She wondered vaguely if someone had spike the eggnog, but just smiled lightly and waited the party out in the bathroom.

-

Raven walked out of the washroom when she heard the music from the party start to fade. She walked back into the large room and saw that most of the guests had left already, and the Titans were all cleaning up. She silently joined them, placing empty trays in the sink and putting fold-up chairs in the closet.

Raven passed Beast Boy a couple of times. Every time she looked at him, he looked back at her and winked, causing her to flush happily and look away.

Once everything had been cleaned, and the tower was back to looking professional (AN: I really don't like the Titans East Tower. It seems more like a warehouse, than a place to live, don't you think?) they walked to the door and everyone got their coats and boots on.

"Well, we'll see you soon. You're all invited to our New Year party," Bee told them, smiling. "Drive safe, Sparky."

The Titans East leader leaned over and planted a kiss on Cyborg's human cheek. He smiled bashfully and Raven noticed a blush cross his dark cheek and nose.

"Oh, and Starfire," continued BumbleBee, turning to the alien floating a few feet away. "Here's that mistletoe you wanted."

Raven noticed with some amusement that Robin still had sparkly spots randomly placed on his face from Starfire's glittery lip-gloss.

'Looks like we weren't the only ones that discovered the mistletoe,' Raven thought, glancing over at Beast Boy, who was currently snickering with Cyborg at Robin, despite the fact that both he and Cyborg had been kissing girls that night too.

"Good bye!" Mas and Menos cried in unison. "Merry Christmas! Happy holidays! Low, low rates!"

Raven raised an eyebrow at the mini speedsters and made her farewells to the other Titans East, even though she had spent most of her time in the kitchen with Bee and in the bathroom alone.

They all left the tower and went to the T-car. As they were walking, Raven casually moved so she was standing next to Beast Boy. As she walked, Raven's hands swung lightly, and the hand closest to Beast Boy kept brushing against the back of his own hand. After this happened a few times, Beast Boy grasped her hand in his own. Raven looked down at their entwined fingers. They were both wearing gloves, but she could feel the warmth from his hand. She liked it.

They walked down the long driveway to the place Cyborg had parked the car, hands moving rhythmically back and forth.

They stopped and let go of each other's hands, before sliding into their seats. Once again, Raven sat in the front passenger seat, as Robin and Starfire had already claimed the back seat and were currently (much to Beast Boy's obvious discomfort) taking advantage of the sprig of mistletoe Bee had given them.

Raven smirked at them and turned around to look out her own window. As she leaned her head against the soft headrest, she looked at Beast Boy in the rear view window. He had a content look on his face, as he looked out the window and over at Raven every once in a while.

Leaning comfortably in her seat, Raven decided that maybe they didn't need to tell each other how they felt. They both knew without saying, and maybe for now that was the best way to say it.

* * *

Ok, I just wanted to say one thing. The part about mistletoe is totally true! Lol, I'm not sureif the side-effects are right, but I know I've read somewherethat mistletoe is poisonous. I found it pretty funny. Of course, in my mind, I sawa sprig of mistletoe fall in between a couple leaning in for a kiss, one of them sucking it in and dying. Lol, prettycynical, but it'salways made me laugh, so I decided to put it in somewhere.

As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed.You all rock!

Tammy Tamborine


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Raven shoved her way through the crowded streets, keeping her eyes fixed on the street signs on each corner. No one seemed to mind her rush, as they were all busy themselves. It was Christmas Eve, and a lot of people needed to find last minute gifts.

Peeling her eyes from the sign for just one minute, Raven looked down at her watch. Eleven-thirty.

She had left early, hoping to avoid the rush of last-minute shoppers, but apparently not early enough.

Raven knew she could just fly up and over the crowd, but it didn't seem right. She had left it until last minute to get Beast Boy's present, and she had to deal with it. In her mind, it was like justified punishment for her procrastination.

Raven sped up her pace, which had faltered when she checked her watch. As she walked, her shoulder bumped into a large man, who ended up stepping on her foot by accident.

"Watch where you're going," the man snarled over his shoulder, not even stopping to see if Raven was all right.

"Merry Christmas to you too, buddy," Raven muttered, rubbing her foot through her shoe as the man disappeared into the crowd. Gingerly placing her foot back on the ground, Raven turned and continued her trek.

Reaching the corner, she quickly made a left, crossed a street, turned right, crossed another street and took another left. Raven stopped. She should be standing outside of the store right now. She wasn't.

Looking down the street, Raven cursed lightly when she saw the street sign. It was the one she had memorized, or at least one she remembered seeing before, but apparently she had been mistaken. The small store was no where in sight. Walking around the block once, Raven searched the store windows for any sign of the little toy store.

Cursing her bad luck, Raven stormed through the streets. She didn't know where she was going, but she certainly wasn't about to stop and give up. Eventually, she reached her unknown destination. It was the little café she had gone to with Beast Boy a few days a go. Had it really only been a little over a week?

She pushed open the door and walked in. A bell chimed above her and she walked over to a small table in the corner.

She looked around the restaurant. It was nearly empty. The only other occupant was an old woman doing a crossword in the newspaper. Raven looked down at her table before looking up again and doing a double-take. Looking closer at the woman, Raven recognized her as the old woman who had been sitting with her husband the last time she came.

Hesitantly, Raven stood up. She wasn't completely sure why, but she suddenly felt a strong urge to go talk to the old woman.

She walked across the café and sat down across from the woman. Looking up from her crossword in surprise, she smiled.

"Hello dear," the woman greeted. "Can I help you?"

Raven gave her a small smile.

"I'm not sure," Raven replied truthfully. She wondered once more why she had come over. They sat in a slightly awkward silence. As Raven searched her mind for something to say, the woman looked at her.

"Do I know you?" the woman asked, gazing at Raven's features. "You look familiar."

"Um, no, not really," Raven was unsure of how to answer. "I came here the other day, when you were with your husband. You said something about my friend and I-"

"I remember you now!" the woman exclaimed. "You're the girl I saw. You were with that green boy!"

"Yes," Raven replied, feeling slightly more comfortable for some reason. "It's just, I was wondering…"

The woman looked at Raven, waiting for her to continue. Once Raven had her thoughts straight, she restarted.

"How long have you known your husband?"

The woman looked confused at the question, but just smiled and replied.

"I've known Oscar for many years now," the woman told her. "We met when we were twelve. I had just moved to a new place, with my foster family, and I was scared to meet new people. Oscar came over to me one day and asked to be my friend. We've been inseparable ever since."

The woman had a dreamy look on her face, and though she could see the woman, Raven felt as though the woman were far away, in some dream land of memories. Raven was slightly startled when the woman continued.

"As we grew up, we grew closer. He took me to our senior prom. When he asked me, he insisted that it was just as friends, but then on the night of the dance, he leaned over and we both shared our first kiss."

The woman had a whimsical smile on her face as she recalled that night so long ago.

"After that we kept going out, although, if anyone else asked, we always said that we were just friends. We told each other the same thing. Eventually we admitted that it wasn't friendship we felt for each other. Far from it. We were in love, and we didn't care who knew it. We got married fairly young, although at the time it wasn't uncommon to get married at eighteen."

Finishing her story, the woman sighed happily and looked over at Raven.

"Oh, dear, I've been rambling on about my life," the woman said, flushing good-naturedly. "I don't suppose you care about an old woman's love life."

"No, I liked your story,"insisted Raven.

It was true. Raven had found the story very interesting. It was so like, yet unlike, her and Beast Boy. She could see plenty of differences and similarities in both stories.

"Is that all you wanted to know, dear?" asked the woman, shaking Raven from her thoughts.

"What? Oh, yes. Thank you."

They both sat in silence, the woman returning to her crossword, and Raven lost in thoughts. Glancing out the window, Raven jumped when she saw what was sitting across the street.

Raven quickly stood up and ran out the door. She looked back once, to see the woman watching her with a confused expression of her face, but Raven didn't have any time to waste.

Impatiently waiting for a break in traffic, Raven quickly crossed the street and berated herself for not noticing earlier.

Smiling at the display in the window, Raven pulled the door open and walked into the small toy store. It was surprisingly empty, as Raven walked to the counter with purpose.

"Do you have any more of those trains in the window?" Raven asked, forcing her voice to sound calm. Truthfully, she found it hard to believe that anyone could be calm after walking through the hectic city streets just outside.

"We certainly do," smiled the old man standing behind the counter. His face crinkled when he smiled, and wire-rim glasses sat perched on the end of his nose, above a powder white mustache. Raven found herself smiling, despite the stress she still felt. The man had a certain 'grandpa quality' to him, that Raven couldn't help but find calm and warming.

She followed him through the store until he reached a table that had been set up, and had a single box left on it. He picked up the box and handed it to Raven. She looked at the picture in the box and quickly read the contents printed on the back. She smiled. It was perfect, and she had gotten the last one.

She followed the old man back to the cash register where he began punching numbers manually into his computer.

"You're lucky, that was our last one!" The man commented as he tapped on his keyboard. "Gift wrap it?" he offered. Raven nodded, and he continued.

"If this one hadn't been here, you would have had to go all the way to the other side of the city. My brother owns another toy store down there, and we order all our toys from the same places."

Raven leaned against the counter as he carefully measured out a shiny piece of wrapping paper.

"It's good to see children enjoying these trains," he continued. "What with all these new toys that make too much noise and cost too much for something they'll play with twice and forget about. Back in my day, my brothers and I would watch trains like this go around the tree for hours. Even after Christmas, we'd play with it all the time."

Raven nodded, and smiled lightly. She had never really had a toy like that, but she agreed all the same. The man cut out a long piece of red ribbon and wrapped it around the box.

"Of course, Christmas is about making people happy, and if shiny, loud toys make kids happy, so be it. That'll be thirty-nine ninety-five."

Raven jumped a bit, startled that he was finished already done, and pulled out her wallet. Counting out the money, she handed it to him and accepted her change. He gave her the box, and Raven felt pride swell up in her. She had finished all her shopping, and her present for Beast Boy was perfect. He would love it.

Raven walked out of the store, pressing into the waves of shoppers. Walking quickly, Raven didn't notice how loosely she was holding onto the plastic bag she was carrying the present in. She did, however, notice when one handle of the bag snagged on the handles of a bicycle that someone was somehow managing to ride through the mob of shoppers.

Feeling the bag escape her hand, Raven whirled around and watched as the rider continued to weave through the people, not noticing the bag that had gotten caught on his handle bars. Losing sight of the cyclist quickly, Raven lifted herself above the crowd and searched the heads of people for anyone wearing a helmet. Eventually she spotted him, quite far away. She flew over the crowd of people, catching up with the bicycle easily.

She reached down to grab the gift from his handlebars, but before she could reach it, another person bumped into the handlebars, unknowingly sending the gift flying in the other direction.

Raven gasped and flew in the direction she had seen the gift land and quickly landed to search the ground on hands and knees. After a few minutes of dodging feet, slush,and chewed gum, Raven saw the box. It was sitting a few feet away, in a large paper-recycling bin.

Standing up, Raven ran towards it, but stopped when suddenly the bin was lifted into the air. She watched as the bin was lifted up and dumped into the back of a green truck, to be taken to the recycling plant.

The truck began to drive away, but Raven rapidly flew after it. She caught up with the truck easily and looked into the back from above. She growled lightly when she realized that the gift had been buried under scraps of paper.

Diving into the back of the moving truck, Raven quickly began rummaging through the paper. She was glad that it had been a paper-recycling bin, and not a garbage can, or sticky bottles, but she hissed all the same when she received several small paper cuts.

Not long after she had begun, Raven found the box and flew out of the truck. Clutching the gift tightly to her chest, Raven flew back to the tower quickly before anything else could happen.

Landing at the door of Titans Tower, Raven nearly ran inside, carelessly tossing her boots and coat in the closet. She was dashing up the stairs and through the halls, when she found herself suddenly lying on the ground.

"Sorry about that," a familiar voice said from above her. "But you should really watch where you're going."

"Shut up," Raven snarled, ignoring the gloved hand in front of her and standing up. The green boy in front of her looked startled.

"No need to be rude, it was just an accident," Beast Boy told her, letting his hand fall to his side.

"I'm in a hurry. Now, if you don't have anything important to say, which I highly doubt you do, get out of my way."

Beast Boy looked at her angrily for a second, but moved out of her way. Raven quickly moved passed him, ran into her room, and threw the door closed behind her. Leaning against the door, Raven slid to the floor, regaining her breath. Once her lungs were full once more, Raven let out a small giggle.

She had been in such a rush- for no reason, she might add- to get back to her room and put a name-tag on Beast Boy's present before anything else could happen to it, that she had snapped at Beast Boy for trying to help her.

Shaking her head, she stood up and pulled the present out of its plastic bag. It was already wrapped, so after putting a label on it, Raven stood up and walked out of her room, with the gift in her hands.

Before leaving her room, Raven took one last look around. She smiled as her eyes passed over her newest gift, a set of vanilla candles. She had found them on her bed the other night, with a short note. Beast Boy had told her in the note that he knew she like vanilla and they were selling them cheap at some store he had gone to. Raven rolled her eyes; it was just like Beast Boy to point that out.

Walking into the main room, Raven smiled lightly at all her friend as they sat on the couch and watched a Christmas special on TV.

She walked across the room and placed the gift with the others under the tree, and walked over to the couch. She sat down next to a slightly disgruntled Beast Boy.

"I'm sorry," she told him quietly, so as not to interrupt the movie. "I didn't mean to snap, I was just a bit stressed out from my trip downtown."

Beast Boy looked at her carefully, determining whether she was telling the truth or not and smiled.

"It's okay. Robin told us you had to get one last gift," Beast Boy told her, shifting so she had more room.

"Yeah, and if that wasn't stressful enough, I had to go on a wild chase just to get the gift back when it got caught on someone's bike," Raven told him, leaning into the cushions of the couch. Beast Boy laughed lightly.

"Only in Jump City," he joked. Raven nodded and looked at the TV screen.

Once the show was done ('Rudolf', if you must know), they turned the TV off, and Robin and Cyborg made dinner. They ate slowly, enjoying each other's company.

Once dinner had been made, they all ate a dessert of shortbread cookies.

"Anyone want to open a present?" asked Robin, noticing Starfire's constant glances at the many colorful gifts under the tree. The girl looked at him in surprise.

"Is it not an earth custom to open the presents on the day of Christmas?"

"Well, yeah," replied Robin. "But some people open one gift each on Christmas Eve. I know I used to get to when I lived with Bruce."

"Dude, totally!" Beast Boy exclaimed, running towards the tree. As his friends laughed and walked over, he rummaged through the gifts excitedly.

Once everyone was seated around the tree, with a gift in hand, they were allowed to open their present.

Raven looked down at the gift she was holding. It was from Cyborg, and judging by the size and shape of the present, she could tell it was probably a book.

Opening the present, she smirked. It was a book. Reading the back, she learned that it was a book of poetry. To her slight annoyance, it was full of love poems, a small and rather unfunny joke on Cyborg's part. Still, it was a nice book, and she decided to read it later.

She looked around at her friends. Beast Boy was oohing and awing over some new video game Robin had chosen for him, while Starfire cuddled with the stuffed bear Cyborg had gotten her. Cyborg was excitedly reading the contents of the car waxing kit Beast Boy had gotten him. Finally Raven's eyes fell on Robin and she had to struggle to contain her laughter.

He was holding a gift in his hands, still wrapped with familiar red, gold and green wrapping paper.

She watched with bated breath as Robin ripped off the paper and opened the white box underneath. By now, everyone else was watching too, since Robin was the only one left.

Pulling out the doll, Robin paused. He took in the doll's appearance, noticing the doll's resemblance to Starfire easily. Robin looked at the doll, with a mixture of embarrassment and shock on his face. His eyes were wide and a red tinge on his face had now turned into a deep scarlet. His lips were a straight line stretched across the bottom of his face.

Eventually, Cyborg couldn't hold it in anymore. Side-heaving laughter escaped the half-metal man, soon joined by Beast Boy's own squeaky laughter and Raven's quiet chuckling. Robin shot them all glares, most aimed at Raven for getting him the doll, and Starfire swooped over to admire the doll.

"She is most pretty, do you not think so?" she asked Robin innocently, causing Cyborg and Beast Boy to laugh even harder. Robin stuttered a reply, as Starfire continued to ramble on about having tea parties together, and asking if he had any other dolls, and if they looked as familiar as that one.

Eventually the laughter died down, and the doll was forgotten.

"I believe it is time we all went to bed, or Santa will not visit us," said Starfire, ushering everyone out of the room. Raven stood back, as she pushed the boys out of the room.

Once she was sure everyone had left, she quickly ran over to the counter. Easily spotting the plate of left over shortbread cookies, Raven picked it up and removed the plastic wrap covering them.

Placing the plate of cookies on the coffee table by the tree, Raven left the room. Hey, as long as no one else knew, she could still believe in Santa Claus, right?

A gift sat waiting on her bed. It was in a bag this time, with no note, and Raven quickly pulled out the tissue paper covering it. Looking into the bag, Raven smiled, and pulled out the present inside. It was a book. Not just any book, but a classic book known as, 'A Christmas Carol'. Pulling out the book and rubbing her thumb over the cover, Raven decided that Cyborg's book would have to wait. She wanted to read this one first.

She looked around briefly, searching for the note that should have accompanied the gift, but she couldn't find it.

She didn't read any ofthe bookthat night, though she wanted to. Instead, she quickly changed into her pajamas and slipped under the covers. As she drifted to sleep, she could have sworn she heard bells and hoof beats on the roof.

* * *

Tomorrow's the last chapter! Aw, I'm going to miss working on this story. I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad so many of you did as well. It made me feel so special to get so many reviews. I really wasn't expecting as many asI got.

Anyway, before I get too sentimental, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. I truly appreciate it!

Tammy Tamborine


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Merry Christmas!" Raven greeted happily, walking into the common room. Her friends looked up in surprise and smiled back at her cheerful greeting.

"Merry Christmas," they all replied. Everyone was awake, sitting around the Christmas tree. None of the gifts had been opened yet, as everyone had been waiting for Raven.

She walked over and sat down, and everyone took that as a cue to grab presents. Beast Boy jumped in first, calling out names and tossing everyone their presents.

Once all the gifts had been distributed, they tore through the paper.

Raven opened hers eagerly. She received a book on meditation from Robin and a pair of jet stone earrings from Starfire. She looked around for her present for Beast Boy, but couldn't find any. Deciding that she probably didn't have another one from him, and knowing that he had gotten her more than enough for the past eleven days, she pushed the gift out of her mind and watched everyone admire their own presents.

She looked over at Beast Boy as he flipped happily through a joke book Cyborg had gotten him. Catching his eye, he blushed and looked away from her. He picked up his last present, the present from her. Raven watched nervously as he ripped the paper off, crumpling and throwing it unceremoniously on the floor. As he looked at the box, a large grin spread across his face.

It wasn't one of his usual goofy smiles, but one full of innocent joy. He looked up and Raven noticed, slightly uncomfortably, that there were tears glistening in his eyes.

"Thank you," he warbled. He tossed the box on the floor and jumped over to Raven, pulling her into a tight hug. The momentum from him throwing himself at her took Raven by surprise, and she struggled not to fall on her back. After regaining her balance, she returned the embrace, smiling lightly. Eventually he let go and walked back to his spot on the floor, picking up the train box.

Once all the wrapping paper had been cleaned up, Cyborg went over to the counter, making a large breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and toast. He even agreed to make Beast Boy's meal with tofu.

As Raven sat at the table, drinking tea and reading 'A Christmas Carol', Beast Boy walked up to her.

"Uh, can I talk to you? Over there?" he asked nervously, pointing over to the corner. Raven raised an eyebrow, but placed her bookmark in between the pages and followed him over, tea in hand.

Beast Boy stopped and looked at Raven. She gazed back, unblinking, and he spoke.

"Raven, I've been giving you presents for a while now, right?" he didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "And you've known it's me for a long time. Maybe since the beginning, but I doubt it. Anyway, I suppose after a while you must have figured out that I really, really like you, because it was obvious. And if not, I told you in my note a couple days ago.

"And I just thought I should let you know that I really do have a present for you today, it just wasn't under the tree because it's really something I should give to you in person. Anyway, I was kind of getting the feeling that maybe you like me too, I mean, you let me lean on you, and I kissed you without getting thrown out the window, and you let me hold your hand and…"

Beast Boy paused for a breath after his rambling speech. She could tell he was nervous as he gasped for breath, and she took a drink of her tea while he gathered his nerves. As she was taking a long swig of her drink, he quickly pulled a small box from his pocket and threw himself onto one knee.

"Will you marry me, Raven?"

Raven promptly spit her tea out. Wiping away the unlady-like tea trickling down her chin, coughing and spluttering, Raven stared at Beast Boy with wide eyes. Beast Boy laughed nervously.

"That came out wrong," he admitted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Raven put a hand over her pounding heart as he stood up and smiled nervously at her and their friends, who had looked over in surprise when Beast Boy had screamed out his question. Raven glanced over at them quickly, but her attention was soon brought back to Beast Boy when he spoke again.

"What I meant to say is," Beast Boy said, opening the box to reveal a ring. Raven looked at it, and decided that it was a good thing the box had been closed when he blurted out that question, or she probably would have had a heart attack. Needless to say, her heart was still pounding rather hard. "Will you accept this… promise ring? It's just to say that we'll always stick together. Maybe even… as more than friends."

Raven felt tears burning the backs of her eyes, although she blamed it on coughing out all her tea. Smiling, she nodded and held out her hand. Smiling in relief, Beast Boy pulled the ring out of the case and slipped it onto a finger on her right hand.

Raven looked down at the ring. It was made of silver-gold and had a small diamond set in it, with an emerald on one side and an amethyst on the other. Cheering reached her ears, and she looked up to see Robin, Cyborg and Starfire smiling and congratulating them. She smiled lightly and looked back at Beast Boy, who was looking up and smiling mischievously.

She looked at him questioningly and he looked back, smiling.

"Did you know that mistletoe is poisonous to ingest?" he asked. Raven raised a confused eyebrow and looked up. A sprig of mistletoe had been attached to the roof above them.

"I don't care," she replied. Catching him by surprise, she pulled him closer and kissed him. Cyborg whooped and hollered as his friends kissed, and Starfire and Robin soon took Raven's and Beast Boy's example and started kissing.

-

The mouth-watering scent of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and many other culinary delights floated across the room to where Raven sat, pretending to read her book. In truth, as she sat curled up on the couch, surrounded by her friends, she was too busy watching Beast Boy to actually read her book.

He had set it up within minutes of finishing breakfast, and he had spent most of the day watching it travel around the Christmas tree, cheering loudly every time a puff of steam escaped the bright red engine.

The Titans East had come over at around twelve. Robin had already stuffed the turkey and placed it in the oven by the time they had arrived, cooking it slowly so it would be juicy and ready to eat around dinnertime.

Since then, everyone had been enjoying each other's company. Earlier that evening, BumbleBee, Robin, Cyborg and Aqualad had gone into the kitchen to make the rest of Christmas dinner, being the best cooks.

Raven walked over and sat down next to Beast Boy, who was currently setting up an extra tunnel.

"I see you're enjoying your present," she said casually.

"I see you are too. You haven't put down that book all day," her replied, looking up at her and smiling. He was exaggerating to be sure, but Raven felt no need to correct him, or inform him that if she had actually been reading it she would have been finished by now.

They sat in silence, watching the train go around the tree and under the newly constructed tunnel.

"So, umm… did you read the note last night?" Beast Boy asked, feigning casualness. Raven looked over.

"No, I couldn't find one," she replied, suddenly very curious. "Why? What did it say?"

Beast Boy blushed lightly and turned back to the train.

"Uh, it's not important," he told her, running a hand through his green hair.

"Well, obviously it was, if you asked. And you're blushing," Raven replied, looking at him closely. He smiled.

"Okay, so maybe it is pretty important. No, scratch that, it is really important, but I don't think I have the guts to say it out loud. Not yet."

Raven nodded, looking back at the train as it did another loop. She wondered how Beast Boy had spent almost and entire day watching a toy train go around in circles. He was usually so impatient, always bouncing off the walls. Raven doubted even she could sit still for so long.

Then again, he had taken a few breaks to talk to everyone and play some of his new video games. And, truthfully, the train just wasn't as important to Raven as it was to Beast Boy. Not to say it wasn't important; she just wasn't very interested in it.

Raven shifted slightly to look into the fire. Cyborg had installed the electric fireplace about a month ago, insisting it was a 'babe magnet'. Robin had argued a bit, until Starfire came into the room and he suddenly saw the possible advantages of a girl-attracting fireplace.

"Dinner's ready!" Bee's voiced drifted across the room easily, and in seconds all the Titans were seated at the large table. Ten plates and several utensils had been set up in front of every chair, and a tablecloth festively decorated with poinsettias had been draped over the table. Once everyone else was seated, Bee carefully carried the large turkey over to the table, and placed it down in the center. Robin and Aqualad followed, carrying mashed potatoes, gravy, warm buns, cranberry sauce, corn, chestnuts, and several other dishes, all balanced precariously on silver trays.

Cyborg trailed behind them and walked around the table to where Beast Boy was sitting. Carefully, he placed a dish with a specially prepared tofu dish in front of the changeling. Beast Boy grinned excitedly at the smell emanating from the spices and sauces used in the tofu.

"Dude! This looks awesome! Thanks!" Beast Boy exclaimed, trying not to salivate on the tablecloth.

"Don't get used to it," smirked Cyborg. "Cause the only time I'm ever touching that nasty stuff again, is to either dispose of it, or _maybe_ as a special treat next Christmas."

Beast Boy laughed, and everyone joined in, enjoying the light-hearted banter. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Cy."

The dinner was delicious. Raven made a mental note to change her New Year's Resolution from, 'Try not to throw Beast Boy and Cyborg out the window' to 'Learn how to cook'. Not that she ever kept her resolutions.

Once dinner had been heartily consumed, followed by a large dessert of pie and fruitcake, everyone made their way over to the fireplace. They spread out in front of the warm flames. Starfire and Robin had curled up together on one end of the couch, while Cyborg and Bee had claimed the other. Aqualad sat in the middle, smiling contentedly.

Speedy had stretched himself out at the foot of the couch, propping his head up lazily on his hand.

Mas and Menos had their arms slung over each other's backs in a brotherly gesture and were whispering peacefully in rapid Spanish, and were sitting on the floor to the right of the couch.

Then, there were Raven and Beast Boy, sitting on the carpeted floor in front of the fireplace.

Beast Boy was leaning against the coffee table, one knee raised slightly, arms wrapped around Raven. Raven sat between his legs, leaning against his chest and leg. Her skin prickled deliciously as she sat there, watching the flames dance merrily in the fireplace.

Raven looked over at Beast Boy, who was looking at the flames as well. The light flickered across his green face, making his eyes of jade sparkle with his ever-present joy.

Smiling contentedly, Raven turned back to the fire, dozing and talking in quiet tone with her friends.

-

Crawling under her covers, Raven closed her eyes. The image of Beast Boy's face, lit up by the fire still lingered wonderfully in her mind. She wondered how she had ever gotten so lucky as to fall in love with such a wonderful person, and to have him care for her as well. Smiling at her girlish/ romantic thoughts, she opened her eyes and took one final look around her room. She was about to turn off her lamplight, when she noticed a note on the floor.

Picking it up, she realized it must be the missing note from the other night. Sitting up in bed, Raven opened it and read it.

_Raven,_

_I love you._

Raven looked at the note and smiled. She placed the note on her bedside table and turned off the light. Lying down, she closed her eyes and let a peaceful sleep take over her.

**The End

* * *

**

That's it. That's the end of A Partridge in a Pear Tree. I'm really pretty sad that it's over. I know I'vesaid thisalready, but I had so much fun writing and posting this story. I'm really glad so many of you enjoyed it. I was slightly overwhelmed by the all the positive reviews I got! I hope this chapter was to your liking; I really wanted to go out with a bang.

I just want to say one more thing. The holidays should be spent with friends and family. Let your loved ones know they're important, and have fun this season.Whatever you celebrate(if anything), I hope you enjoy it.Now, I've got to go before I start sobbing like a baby. You've all made my Christams extra special. Thank you all so much.

Tammy Tamborine


End file.
